Salazar’s biofuel credit added to 2008 Farm Bill
Published May 9, 2008 by Rob Larimer
Sen. Ken Salazar’s cellulosic biofuels production tax credit has been included in the 2008 Farm Bill.
The $1.01 per gallon tax credit is good through 2012 for biofuels produced from renewable cellulosic feedstock – not food grain or food starch.
“Cellulosic biofuels are an innovative and sound alternative to food grain and starch-based fuels,” Salazar said. “They will not contribute to food shortages or higher food prices and will help ease the cost of petroleum-based fuels from foreign countries. … And they can be produced from plants that require far less water. This tax credit is a major step in our march toward cheaper fuels and greater energy independence.”
Cellulosic biofuels are made by releasing the sugars locked in the cell structure of plants and fermenting that sugar into fuel, or by converting the biomass into a synthetic gas which can be converted to liquid fuels or used to generate electricity.
Cellulosic biofuels have the potential to displace 3.5 billion barrels of oil annually, equivalent to 60 percent of the country’s yearly consumption of oil.
Filed under CSBJ Daily, Ecology