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Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/59744
BIO DI E S E L "Obviously, there has been more of an emphasis lately on budgets and deficits and that comes into play with the tax incentive because there is a cost to the treasury, but we feel that cost is more than outweighed by the benefits both in terms of tax revenues that are generated by the industry and the jobs that are created and diversifying the fuel supply and improving the environment." FON: You had a big production year in 2011—have you any estimation on how this will impact production in 2012? Evans: We don't have any specific numbers yet because the EPA has been delayed in publishing production num- bers. What we saw is that producers were rushing to produce under the tax credit last year and in December we had record volumes—I think it was 160 mil- lion gallons—so clearly after that type of production they're going to cut back a little. This usually happens in January and February anyway because they are winter months and a new year and people are retooling so we don't have a clear picture right now. But certainly not having that $1 in the value stream hurts the econom- ics of production and selling bio diesel. FON: It's really hard to say at this point in the election season exactly what we'll have after November from the White House to the Senate to the House. With that in mind, is there anything you antici- pate happening politically relative to the product after November? Evans: As you noted, it's very difficult to prognosticate as to what will happen. Some people are saying the Senate will go Republican, others are saying the House might revert back to Democrats, but we anticipate that whatever happens it will con- 28 tinue to be fairly split and we don't feel that there is going to be a huge majority either way in any case. And as we're seeing, you have to have about 60 votes to get much of anything through the Senate these days. So, the way we look at it is that we have to continue building that bipartisan sup- port, and we currently have support that is regionally diverse across the country and bipartisan. Obviously, there has been more of an emphasis lately on budgets and deficits and that comes into play with the tax incen- tive because there is a cost to the treasury, but we feel that cost is more than outweighed by the benefits both in terms of tax revenues that are generated by the industry and the jobs that are created and diversifying the fuel supply and improving the environment. FON: To sidetrack for a second, President Obama recently brought up algae related to biodiesel production. It's something we have followed in our magazines for some time as kind of the Holy Grail feed- stock for biodiesel. Can you give us any feedback as to what the state of that tech- nology is today? Evans: I'm not really the expert on it here, but it is definitely coming along. They are making great progress, and it's still a very promising feedstock. Right now, of course, the issue is cost and scalability, and there are still some challenges there, but we are working towards that. l FON APRIL 2012 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com