Letter to Chairman Bill Thomas, House Ways and Means Committee

September 29, 2004

Chairman Bill Thomas
House Ways and Means Committee
1102 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Thomas:

We applaud your efforts to pass legislation to ensure the United States is in compliance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling involving the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) and the Extraterritorial Income Exclusion (ETI) export taxes. Now that the Senate and the House of Representatives have both passed FSC-ETI legislation, we would like to express our support for inclusion of certain energy provisions that would greatly benefit the American economy. Included in the Senate's version of the FSC-ETI bill, are energy tax provisions important to America's energy interests. These include a Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit and an expansion of the Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit for wind, biomass (including both open-looped and close looped) and other renewables. Also of importance is the tax credit for biodiesel which amounts to $1.00 per gallon for biodiesel made from virgin oils and animal fats, and $.50 per gallon for biodiesel made from recycled oils.

As conferees meet to resolve the differences in the House and Senate bills, we hope these provisions important to the state of Minnesota and the nation would be included in the final conference agreement. We appreciate your consideration.

Sincerely,

Rep. Gil Gutknecht
Rep. Collin Peterson
Rep. John Kline
Rep. Mark Kennedy
Rep. James Oberstar
Rep. Betty Mccollum

Cc: House Conferees
Senate Conferees