WASHINGTON - Manning Feraci, the National Biodiesel Board's (NBB) vice president for Federal Affairs, issued a statement in the wake of the Senate's procedural vote on Jobs legislation.

"The biodiesel industry supports 23,000 good-paying jobs. Yet, since the biodiesel tax incentive was allowed to lapse at the end of last year, the biodiesel industry has been shedding jobs, and plants across the country have been mothballed.

"That is why it is critical that a retroactive extension of the biodiesel tax incentive be included in the first legislative vehicle that passes through Congress and is signed into law. In the absence of the incentive, more jobs will be lost and irreparable damage will be done to an industry that is reducing our dependence on foreign oil, while at the same time producing a domestically sustainable low carbon diesel replacement fuel."

The National Biodiesel Board is the national trade association of the biodiesel industry and is the coordinating body for biodiesel research and development in the U.S. NBB's membership is comprised of state, national, and international feedstock and feedstock processor organizations, biodiesel producers, fuel marketers and distributors, and technology providers.

For more information, visit www.nbb.com.