In Washington, a huge year-end spending package passed Congress yesterday. The $1.4 trillion spending package includes appropriation for Fiscal Year 2021, the COVID stimulus package, extensions of popular tax credits that otherwise expired on December 31st, and the Energy Act of 2020, a $35B version of a larger energy bill that has been drifting around in Congress since 2016.
At the White House, the President criticized the bill for wasteful provisions and for insufficient COVID stimulus and called on Congress to amend the legislation, but stopped short of a veto threat. Without the President’s signature, the government shuts down at midnight tonight.
As Fuels America noted, “the new omnibus appropriations and COVID-19 relief package extends key tax provisions for low-carbon biofuels and explicitly authorizes the USDA to deliver on long-awaited aid for biofuel producers.” One Hill observer added, “The bill is a classic end-of-year compromise: everybody got something, and
President Trump signed the coronavirus relief and government funding bill Dec. 27.
Late into the night on Dec. 21, just before their return home for the holiday, Congress passed its version of an early Christmas present to many in America who have been affected by COVID-19.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Senate Amendment to H.R. 133, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2021, which not only offered up $900 billion in COVID-19 relief to Americans, but also appropriated $1.4 trillion for fiscal year 2021. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-OK, said in a statement, âThe package passed today provides Paycheck Protection Program loans helping the hardest hit businesses, delivers additional federal unemployment aid, and gives individuals and families ore direct stimulusâall a bridge through the next few months until mass immunization occurs.
-The Hagstrom Report
Michael Regan, secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality in North Carolina and President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to be Environmental Protection Agency administrator, called National Corn Growers Association President Jon Doggett after the announcement of his nomination, AgWeb reported.
Doggett quoted Regan as saying he knows the importance of the Renewable Fuel Standard to the corn industry.
“That was really good to hear,” Doggett noted.
American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings said, “We congratulate Secretary Regan on his nomination to be EPA administrator and look forward to working with him to get the Renewable Fuel Standard back on track, clear regulatory hurdles to E15 and higher blends, and ensure corn ethanol is part of the solution to new policies designed to tackle climate change.
Pierre, SD, USA / DRGNews
Dec 22, 2020 7:23 AM
The Renewable Fuels Association welcomed the passage of the Omnibus Appropriations and Coronavirus Relief Package, which explicitly includes renewable fuel producers as entities eligible to receive COVID-19 emergency relief aid. The bill also extends key tax provisions that support innovation and expansion in the renewable fuels industry, including the Second Generation Biofuel Producer Tax Credit, Alternative Fuel Refueling Property Credit, and the Section 45Q tax credit for carbon sequestration.
The legislation provides $13 billion in agricultural assistance and programs and specifies that the funding may be used to “make payments to producers of advanced biofuel, biomass-based diesel, cellulosic biofuel, conventional biofuel, or renewable fuel…produced in the United States, for unexpected market losses as a result of COVID–19.”
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