The short term extension of the payroll tax reduction expires February 29 and a formal House-Senate conference committee has been convened to negotiate a longer-term extension. Most on Capitol Hill acknowledge that the bill is likely to be the only tax bill that will be passed before elections. The legislation remains the best possibility to extend production and investment tax credits that have done so much to boost renewable energy technologies and markets.
The American Soybean Association is hoping that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and other lawmakers are successful in their call for the conference committee to add the expired one-dollar-per-gallon biodiesel tax credit. Of exceeding importance is the fact that the production tax credit and the biodiesel credit were adopted on a bipartisan basis to create and sustain jobs.
Meanwhile, Governors Terry Branstad of Iowa and Sam Brownback of Kansas have written members of the conference committee urging them to include an extension of the wind energy production tax which is set to expire at the end of this year. The governors, whose states benefit significantly from wind energy production and manufacturing revenues, call the sector an “American success story,” building the U.S. manufacturing base, creating jobs, lowering energy costs and strengthening the nation’s energy security.
Source: NAFB News Service