PHOENIX –The biodiesel industry is ready to get back on track, says the CEO of the National Biodiesel Board.

After the exuberance of 2008 gave way to contraction in 2009 and confusion in 2010, Joe Jobe says the industry is poised to have its "largest year ever."

Speaking at the opening of the 8th Annual National Biodiesel Conference & Expo in Phoenix, where about 1,200 members of the biodiesel industry have gathered, Jobe said the past two years presented numerous challenges but the overwhelmingly positive atmosphere at this year’s event shows that biodiesel producers are ready for growth.

“It was a testament to this industry’s determination not to give up no matter how hard it gets," he said. "I want to take a second and say thank you to this industry for fighting through this last year, staying with it, staying together and not backing down."

Jobe said many of the delays that affected the start of the second version of the EPA’s?Renewable Fuel Standard are in the past, such legal challenges and the pending reinstatement of the tax credit.