Greentech Media

The U.S. Congress on Thursday managed to enact a $290 billion farm bill that included tax credits and subsidies for biofuels, despite a presidential veto and an embarrassing debacle that omitted a portion of the legislation from the version sent to the president.

But even though the eagerly anticipated biofuels incentives already are officially on the books, their status isn't yet completely secure.

The bill seemed to be moving ahead on Wednesday, when the House of Representatives voted, 316-108, to crush President Bush's veto. The Senate also was expected to override the veto Thursday, making the bill law.

But things went awry when a clerical blunder excluded 34 pages of the legislation - a portion authorizing trade and food aid. Lawmakers discovered the mistake after Bush already had vetoed the bill and quickly found themselves trying to figure out what to do.

On Thursday afternoon, the Senate agreed, in an 82-13 vote, to override the portion of the bill that was vetoed, making it official. The future of the omitted pages is still uncertain, as they have not yet been vetoed and, therefore, can't be overridden.

But biofuel industry watchers claim the incentives that did pass will help boost the commercialization of advanced fuels.

The farm bill provides a $1.01-per-gallon production-tax credit for cellulosic biofuel through 2012, a penny higher than the subsidy on biodiesel, as well as $320 million in loan guarantees to build refineries.

Other industry gains also include $300 million for the production of fuels such as cellulosic ethanol and $70 million for farmers to experiment with sustainable-biofuels crops from 2009 through 2012.

Paul Winters, a spokesperson for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, called the move a win.

"It completes the picture of the energy bill," he said. The energy bill created a 36 billion-gallon market for biofuels.

The farm bill will help investors overcome some of the risk of building refineries to produce advanced biofuels, Winters said. Companies developing such fuels, like cellulosic ethanol and biobutanol, which are made from nonfood biomass, haven't yet been able to produce them on a mass scale or at affordable prices.

In order to restart the process of turning the omitted section of the bill into law, the House passed the entire farm bill again Thursday afternoon by a vote of 306-110, according to CNN.

But it is still unclear how the situation will be resolved.