Renewable Diesel
Marty Ross |
04/16/07 - When he first decided to open a biodiesel plant, Delaware farmer Marty Ross knew that it wouldn't be easy. But he believed in biodiesel's potential for both providing energy security and adding value to the Delaware soybean crop. Seven years later, his Clayton, Del. plant is in production, and beginning to enjoy some hard-earned success. The plant has the capacity to produce 5.5 million gallons of biodiesel a year, and Ross has plans to expand that as demand increases.
However, a dark cloud now hangs over his business and threatens to dampen the benefits that the biodiesel industry brings to all Americans.
"We feel like we are about to be stranded on a bridge to nowhere," said Ross, president and founder of Mid-Atlantic Biodiesel.
Ross and many others in the biodiesel industry are under threat by some large integrated oil companies, which have aggressively pursued access to a federal tax incentive that was designed to stimulate an emerging technology. Special interests have successfully lobbied the U.S. Department of Treasury to exploit a loophole in a tax credit law for their own benefit.
"This is bad energy policy, bad agricultural policy and bad fiscal policy," Jobe said. "If Congress lets this stand, our government will be handing over U.S. taxpayer money to some of the richest companies in the world, and it will not provide many of the benefits that the biodiesel tax incentive has given back to America."
Related Links
|
