A bill that would have given tax credits for retailers to sell more ethanol and biodiesel in Indiana was heard by the state legislature this year, but one state lawmaker will bring that same bill back around next year with hopes of seeing it becoming law.
“We think that it will benefit our farmers and our corn and soy producers,” says State Rep. Craig Snow (R-Warsaw), who introduced House Bill 1315—a biofuels tax credit bill—earlier this year.
Snow spoke about his legislation as one of the guest panelists during the recent High-Performance Low Carbon Fuels Summit held at Andretti Global in Indianapolis and sponsored by the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance.
He says his bill didn’t pass the hearing stage because it would have offered retailers up to $10 million in tax credits for selling higher blends of ethanol—and up to $5 million in tax credits for selling biodiesel.
“Which is why it was a hearing only in 2024 because it was not a budget year,” he says. “We were not going to open up the budget so we’re looking forward to having that done in 2025 it’ll be a budget year so we’re looking to take that bill back and get that $10 million appropriated for this purpose.”
Snow says he’s planning to introduce the biofuels tax credit bill once again in January. He says he is already working now to get this legislation across the finish line for next year.
“What I’ll be working on this summer and fall will be working with my peers—state senators and state representatives alike—to just educate them on what the bill trying to do,” says Snow. “A lot of our legislators are not ag people, so there’s a lot of education there, but I would also say within the industry itself with our producers—we want to educate them. We want them to call their legislators and help them understand why they want this done.”
According to the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance, Snow’s bill would add over $223 million in economic activity from biodiesel and would grow the demand for 51 million more bushels of corn for ethanol production.
