"SPLASH AND DASH" BIOFUEL SCAM COSTS AMERICANS MILLIONS

U.S. taxpayers are being bilked to the tune of millions of dollars by a biofuel subsidy that helps to lower gas prices - in Europe. The scam is known as "splash and dash." Here's how it works:

• The scam stems from an existing $1 subsidy for every gallon of biodiesel fuel blended with regular diesel in the United States.
• Biodiesel is produced abroad using South American sugar cane or Asian palm oil and shipped to the United States, where it's blended with just a "splash" of regular diesel.
• A typical tanker-load of about 9 million gallons of biodiesel requires just 9,000 gallons of American diesel to make it qualify for the subsidy.
• The ship then makes a "dash" for Europe, where its fuel is sold below market rates; that means each tanker-load that makes the dash nets importers about $9 million dollars in tax credits from the IRS.
• In 2007 this subsidy cost the American taxpayers $300 million; it's projected to cost them $600 million next year.

And while Congress and the National Biodiesel Board say they know the loophole is being exploited -- as America is exporting much more biofuel than it is producing -- they can't identify the guilty companies that continue to profit from this scam due to IRS rules...

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