With the promise of a tax cut credit for diesel fuels blended with agricultural products as a key issue, House and Senate negotiators agreed to most aspects of a plan to nearly double the use of ethanol fuel from corn by 2012.
The U.S. gasoline industry will be required to blend at least 5 billion gallons of ethanol annually in fuel mixes by 2012, up from 2.7 billion gallons now.
For “farm state” senators, the agreement provides a tax credit for diesel blended with soybeans and similar products.
However, lawmakers said that there are still a number of hurdles including proposed tax breaks for buyers of vehicles that run on electricity or fuel cells.
