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Iowa Govrnr. Branstad signs law providing biofuel incentives

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110527/BUSINESS/105270335/1001/COMM/?odyssey=nav|head

12:32 AM, May. 27, 2011

Written by: DAN PILLER

Gov. Terry Branstad signed a law Thursday that will provide retailers with tax credits to use biodiesel and 15 percent ethanol, and create production incentives for Iowa biodiesel producers.

The bill gives retailers a state income tax credit in 2012 of 2 cents per gallon for biodiesel blended at a 2 percent rate and 4.5 cents per gallon for a 5 percent blend.

In 2013, the credit for the 5 percent blend would continue but the 2 percent credit would disappear.

For Iowa's 14 biodiesel plants, the bill creates a production sales tax credit of 3 cents per gallon in 2012, 2.5 cents per gallon in 2013 and 2 cents per gallon in 2014 (for the first 25 million gallons per producer).

The bill also provides retailers with a 3-cent-per-gallon retailer state income tax credit for sales of E15.

"The job now turns to educating retailers and consumers on how this new bill will help promote more fueling freedom at the pump," said Monte Shaw, the executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

Shaw and ethanol proponents must persuade retailers to install pump and tank equipment to handle E15, which was approved late last year by federal regulators. Biofuels proponents hope the higher blend will replace the 10 percent blend.

The biofuels tax incentive bill was introduced and passed by the Legislature this year after lawmakers in 2010 declined to create a state mandate for ethanol use.

The biodiesel industry was jump-started this year when Congress renewed the $1-per-gallon tax credit and also imposed a first-ever mandate of 800 million gallons of biodiesel use in 2011.