Tax Break Spurs NY Distributor to Bring Biodiesel Home

NEW YORK (Dow Jones/AP) - A major distributor of heating oil and diesel has started marketing "biodiesel" for home heating use, spurred by a new federal tax credit aimed at promoting alternative fuels.
Fred M. Schildwachter & Sons, the first New York-area terminal to market biodiesel for trucks, is offering the same fuel - a blend of 80 percent diesel and 20 percent soybean oil - to its home heating customers.

The move gives heating-oil consumers a means to lower their output of sulfur and other harmful emissions. If it catches on, the use of biodiesel could go a long way to ease the periodic supply tightness in the Northeast, the nation's main heating oil market.

Schildwachter said the American Jobs Creation Act, which went into effect Jan. 1 and provides a $1 tax credit for each gallon of soybean oil used in petroleum products, will enable it to sell its biofuel at the same price as regular home heating oil.

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