Minority Leader and South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle and West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd have introduced a provision to amend the small producer ethanol tax credit in legislation regarding clean coal technology. As currently structured, farmer-owned cooperatives, which account for much of the recent growth in the ethanol industry, are unable to take advantage of the small producer tax credit, which allows small producers (less than 30 million gallons of ethanol annually) a 10 cent a gallon tax credit on the first 15 million gallons produced. The Energy Security Tax Act of 1999 , S. 1833, would amend the existing small producer tax credit to allow farmer-owned cooperatives to pass the credit along to their members. The legislation is pending before the Senate Finance Committee.
