Political gridlock batters biodiesel

By The Gazette Editorial Board

A $1 per-gallon federal tax credit for biodiesel and the thousands of jobs that depend on it remain trapped in partisan gridlock. And it's time for the U.S. Senate to break the stalemate.

The credit expired at the end of December. The U.S. House swiftly approved an extension months ago. Biodiesel producers need the credit to remain price competitive with regular diesel.

But the tax credit measure is stuck in the Senate, where it is attached to a large, contentious bill extending unemployment benefits and providing aid to cash-strapped state governments.

On Thursday, Senate Democrats failed to find the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster and free the bill for debate. Republicans and Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska voted to block the broader measure because it would add $30 billion to the nation's spiraling budget deficit.

Both parties are to blame for the biodiesel block.

Rather than having a fair, up-or-down vote on the popular credit, Democrats tossed it into the massive jobs bill, hoping to sweeten its political appeal. And Republicans continue to overuse the filibuster to keep scores of bills bottled up. Political maneuvering and election-year theatrics have made the Senate a highly partisan point of no return, with serious economic consequences, in this case, in the heartland.

The tax credit spawned dozens of new biodiesel production facilities that employ thousands of people nationwide, including 2,000 in Iowa. Now, many of those workers have been laid off while the credit languishes in limbo and biodiesel prices spike.

The National Biodiesel Board estimates that the credit added $4.1 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product and generated $828 million in tax revenue over the past six years. And that doesn't account for the green fuel's proven environmental benefits.

In the wake of Thursday's failed cloture vote, the credit's best hope now is that lawmakers will remove it from the unemployment bill and find another vehicle for its passage. We agree with senators who want to break up the bill, including Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, who supports a five-year extension of the credit.

But the road may not get much easier. It's possible that the biodiesel credit may be added to energy legislation that could see debate sometime in July. That legislation is likely to include the cap and trade climate change provision that's even more politically volatile than the jobs bill.

This important tax credit deserves to stand on its own merits, not as a bargaining chip in a big game of political poker. The Senate should take up the credit separately and pass it swiftly back to the House.

Put partisan posturing aside and put the valuable biodiesel industry and its employees back in business.