Just days ahead of the vote on the coronavirus aid package in Congress, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association Geoff Cooper feared the time for individual, targeted aid for the ethanol industry had passed for an industry grappling with losses near $4 billion for 2020.
According to Farm Progress, the ethanol industry received an early Christmas present, however, with language that at least opened the door for allocated funds to be used to support the biofuels sector as well as important tax provisions extended.
The COVID-19 emergency relief aid package provides $13 billion in agricultural assistance and programs and specifies that the funding boost to the Commodity Credit Corporation 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.”
