After His Party Tripled The Deficit, Earl Pomeroy Wants To Keep Paying People To Use Biodiesel

Sure. Why not. We’ve got money to burn, right?

Legislation has recently been introduced in the House of Representatives that will extend the current biodiesel tax credit from it’s current deadline of Dec. 31, 2009. Rep. Earl Pomeroy’s (D-N.D.) bill, H.R. 4070 proposes to extend the $1 per gallon tax credit for five years.

Proponents of this bill argue that it’s been a success because, shockingly, paying people to use biodiesel has resulted in bigger demand for the product:

Manning Feraci, the National Biodiesel Board Vice President of Federal Affairs, states that, “The biodiesel tax incentive is working. Since its enactment in 2004, U.S. biodiesel production has reached commercial scale, and the nation has realized the job creation, environmental and energy security benefits that come with the expanded production and use of biodiesel.”

Of course, none of that increased production, etc. would have been realized were it not for the government subsidizing the industry.
Meaning this industry is only successful in so far as legitimate businesses (those that don’t depend on the government for profits) and individual tax payers pay for that success.
If biodiesel is such a wonderful thing, why does it need the government to prop it up?