Fuels

Atlas Oil Issues Biodiesel Price Alert

$1-per-gallon credit on biodiesel blends likely to end
TAYLOR, Mich. -- In 2004, the federal government signed into law a biodiesel blender tax credit that has effectively reduced biodiesel prices by $1 per gallon for the past five years. That tax credit is likely to expire on Dec. 31, 2009, as health care reform dominates the legislative agenda, said Taylor, Mich.-based Atlas Oil Co. in a price alert.

Efforts to salvage the biodiesel blender tax credit are underway. According to the Des Moines Register, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the panel's senior Republican, Senator Charles Grassley ([image-nocss] R-Iowa), released a letter Tuesday. They intend to retroactively pass the credit in 2010. "These provisions are important to our economynot only because they help create jobs, but also because they are used to address pressing national concerns," the senators wrote.

Atlas Oil is actively managing the potential loss of the credit, it said, by blending all of its B100 supplies to B99 so that customers will potentially be able to take advantage of the $1 per gallon subsidy into January; however, supplies are limited and Atlas Oil advised customers to plan on higher biodiesel costs.

The $1 per gallon blend credit has provided approximately a one-cent-per-gallon discount on every 1% of biodiesel blended with petroleum diesel; therefore, customers who were purchasing a B20 (20% biodiesel blended with 80% petroleum diesel) should anticipate a 20-cent-per-gallon price jump in 2010 compared to 2009 unless the Senate acts to save the credit.

Atlas Oil said that it remains "fully engaged" with biofuel supply and distribution and will continue to seek value-added solutions for each of its customers as this issue evolves.

A national petroleum products distributor and services provider, Atlas Oil meets the fuel and service needs of businesses, municipalities and governments in 20 states and Ontario, Canada. It also supplies fuel to nearly 400 gasoline convenience stores throughout Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. And it maintains operational centers in Michigan, Indiana, Texas and Ohio.

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