Subsidies and Mandates for Biofuel Don’t Provide Enough Stability?

- by Nicolas Loris, May 16, 2014, Source: The Foundry

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With the Senate considering extending a package of tax credits that expired at the end of 2013, six Senators have banded together to call on Congress to re-up the expired biofuel credits.

In particular, tax credits of $1 per gallon produced was offered for blended diesel made with agricultural products. Apparently, decades of handouts worth billions of dollars, a federal mandate for biofuel production, and numerous state “incentives” just aren’t enough stability for those feeding from the trough filled with taxpayers’ money.

The Senators pointed to a drop in biodiesel production in 2014 as evidence of the need for continued government support. Biodiesel production in January 2014 was 65 million gallons lower than December 2013. That’s because biofuel producers are gorging on taxpayers’ money to oversupply the market.