A taxing problem: Renewable Biofuels idles plant
Houston, Texas-based Renewable Biofuels has idled its 180 million gallon a year biodiesel fuel plant in Port Neches, just a year after it opened.
The company says the decision became unavoidable after Congress failed to renew a tax credit of $1 (€0.69) per gallon for the alternative fuel on 31 December.
The credit gave a dollar to refiners for every gallon of biodiesel they blended into petroleum diesel since 2004. Without it, output at bio¬diesel plants nationwide is grinding to a halt.
‘The vast, if not all, of our contracted parties have essentially said please put ours on hold,’ Jonathan Phillips, chief investment officer at Renewable Biofuels, says.
In Texas, the largest bio¬diesel producing state, the industry provided 8,600 jobs last year across more than 30 plants, including several in Houston.
Renewable Fuels has already made redundant 25 to 30 employees between its Port Neches plant and corporate office amid tough market conditions in 2009, and now is weighing further cuts.
Other producers in the state, including Grapevine-based GreenHunter Energy, which put its 110 million gallon plant at the Houston Ship Channel up for sale earlier this year, have also idled plants and laid off workers.
Today, US biodiesel plants have the capacity to produce about 2.7 billion gallons a year of the fuel, yet as of December, only 15% of that capacity was in use, the National Biodiesel Board states.
The company says the decision became unavoidable after Congress failed to renew a tax credit of $1 (€0.69) per gallon for the alternative fuel on 31 December.
The credit gave a dollar to refiners for every gallon of biodiesel they blended into petroleum diesel since 2004. Without it, output at bio¬diesel plants nationwide is grinding to a halt.
‘The vast, if not all, of our contracted parties have essentially said please put ours on hold,’ Jonathan Phillips, chief investment officer at Renewable Biofuels, says.
In Texas, the largest bio¬diesel producing state, the industry provided 8,600 jobs last year across more than 30 plants, including several in Houston.
Renewable Fuels has already made redundant 25 to 30 employees between its Port Neches plant and corporate office amid tough market conditions in 2009, and now is weighing further cuts.
Other producers in the state, including Grapevine-based GreenHunter Energy, which put its 110 million gallon plant at the Houston Ship Channel up for sale earlier this year, have also idled plants and laid off workers.
Today, US biodiesel plants have the capacity to produce about 2.7 billion gallons a year of the fuel, yet as of December, only 15% of that capacity was in use, the National Biodiesel Board states.
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