Biofuel industry hangs in balance - Carlisle Sentinel(Biofuel News)
Before leaving for the holidays, the state Senate passed a bill that would provide a 75-cent tax credit to companies for every gallon of biofuel they produce for the next three years. It’s not exactly what industry officials wanted — biofuel companies were asking for a $1 tax credit for every gallon produced — but it’s enough to “keep the doors” open if it passes the state House and is signed by the governor, says Ben Wooten, president of Keystone Biofuels and founding member of Pennsylvania Biodiesel Producers Group. Biofuels, what some consider a pillar of future energy production, might not have a future in Pennsylvania without help from the state government, says Wooten and others. Pennsylvania companies consume eight to 10 million gallons of biofuel a day, but Pennsylvania biofuel producers supply only 600,000 gallons of it, he adds. The market is there, he says, but in-state biofuel producers just need to be on a level playing field with those from states like Iowa and Indiana. In the three years since the federal government created tax credits for biofuels, production has ballooned from five million gallons to about 350 million, according to Wooten.
