08/23/07 the Jolly "Not Green" Giant gets Handouts

Wouldn't you like to have the kind of clout with the IRS that big oil companies do? ConocoPhillips speaks and the Internal Revenue Service basically changes the definition of renewable diesel so the jolly "not green giant" can get a big fat tax break. The IRS's redefinition of renewable diesel on behalf of ConocoPhillips allows them to now claim a dollar per-gallon subsidy for merely adding a bit of animal fat or raw vegetable oil into their oil refineries. Can I do that at the pump! Officials with the National Biodiesel Board are fuming at the move that in the end not only hurts farmers but also budding Biodiesel producers projected to create at least 40,000 new jobs. The boards CEO Joe Jobe responded to the IRS move by calling it "a question about what makes sound energy policy; do you take limited taxpayer dollars and invest them in new energy companies or do you take those same dollars and give them to the already large mature highly profitable oil companies?" . Certainly the oil conglomerates aren't going to sit back and let green fuel prevail, unless of course they get big piece of the action. .