The birth and death of the ConocoPhillips-Tyson partnership for renewable diesel; role of NBB in killing off biofuel venture revealed

In Washington, the Examiner newspaper traces the rise and fall of the ConocoPhillips-Tyson biofuel partnership to a little-known chicken fat fuel processing amendment that originated with Missouri congressman Roy Blunt. In 2005, Blunt engineered the broadening of the 2005 energy bill, that first established a Renewable Fuel Standard, to include a tax credit for renewable diesel made from turkey offal. The provision was designed to help a company in Blunt’s district.

In 2007, the IRS said that ConcoPhillips and Tyson announced their venture, relying on an IRS ruling that the $1 per gallon tax credit applied to their animal fat-to-biofuel venture.

The Examiner reports that the National Biodiesel Board, along with members of congress who never intended the tax credit to apply to an oil company, eventually killed the tax credit in last year’s energy legislation, and Tyson and ConocoPhillips killed off the deal.

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