Harkin: Tax package extends ethanol credits, renewable electricity grants for one year

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Thursday that the emerging Senate tax package will extend an expiring ethanol tax credit for one year at the current rate, and will also extend an expiring federal grant program for renewable electricity projects.

A proposal last week by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) would have extended the ethanol credit at a reduced rate.

But Harkin told reporters that the current tax package continues it at 45 cents per gallon. Refiners and gasoline blenders receive the credit for each gallon of ethanol mixed into gasoline.

He also said there is a one-year extension of Treasury Department grants for building U.S. wind farms, solar plants and other types of renewable power projects.

Several Democrats, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), have suggested they could not support the package that extends Bush-era tax cuts if the renewables grants are omitted.

She said Thursday afternoon that she thinks the grants have been included, but noted that bill text has not surfaced. “I believe they are. ‘Believe’ is the operative word because I haven’t seen it,” she told reporters in the Capitol.

The ethanol credits and the grant program are currently slated to expire at the end of the year.