LANSING - State Representative Terry Brown (D-Pigeon) today voted for a plan that will encourage the use and production of renewable fuels in Michigan by providing a tax credit to gas station owners who upgrade or purchase new pumps and tanks that sell ethanol or biodiesel fuel.
"Making renewable fuels available to more consumers statewide will increase Thumb-area farmers' profits and help protect and create jobs right here in our communities," said Brown, a member of both the House Agriculture Committee and the Energy and Technology Committee. "By enabling more gas station owners to provide homegrown ethanol and biodiesel at their pumps, we can also break our dependence on foreign oil more quickly. Expanding our use of renewable fuels is critical to ensuring that our farmers prosper, our economy becomes more diverse and our country increases its security and independence."
The plan passed by the House today will create a business tax credit beginning in 2009 for service station owners who install new renewable fuel delivery systems. The credit would be available over the next three years, and would be limited to $1 million overall and $20,000 per taxpayer.
Any gas station that stops providing renewable fuels within three years of claiming the credit could have the credit reduced, eliminated or have a percentage of the credit added back to their tax liability.
As part of its aggressive plan to create good-paying jobs by establishing Michigan as a 21st century powerhouse of renewable energy production, the House today also passed a plan that will create an Alternative Fuels Fund. The fund will award grants to improve the production of renewable fuels in Michigan. The plan also creates an income tax checkoff option that will help finance the fund.
"As the science of both corn-based and cellulosic ethanol production advances, we have to do everything we can to advance the production and sale of those fuels as well," Brown said. "This plan will help ensure that the vital Thumb industry of agriculture will continue to benefit from the rapid growth of the renewable energy industry."