Clean Energy Tax Credits Dead (?!)
- From: Bolaleman <hulle06@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:18:18 -0700 (PDT)
According to Reuters (Tuesday, June 17, 2008; 3:33 PM), the U.S.
Senate on Tuesday blocked debate of a bill to offer about $17.7
billion in tax incentives for consumers to build renewable energy
sources like windmills and solar arrays, and buy plug-in cars that run
on electricity rather than gasoline.
The vote today to move to the legislation was 52-44, eight short of
the 60 votes needed. Only five Republicans voted to end the filibuster
against action on the bill: others objected to the Democratic plan to
pay for the tax relief by making some hedge fund managers and
multinational corporations pay more taxes.
Opponents argued that tax relief should not be matched with what they
regarded as tax increases.
The Energy Independence and Tax Relief Act of 2008 would have extended
a tax credit to build windmills by one year through December 31, 2009,
and extend for three years similar credits for renewable energy
sources like biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and trash combustion.
The bill failed to garner enough votes to limit debate and move to a
vote, leaving the fate of the clean-energy credits uncertain.
Extension of renewable energy credits was the most expensive portion
of the bill, at about $7 billion over 10 years.
The bill also offered incentives for demonstrating ways to capture
heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired electric
plants, and offered at least $3,000 in tax incentives for consumers to
buy plug-in electric vehicles.
End of the story……
In April this year, the Senate still agreed to extend the 31 years old
solar and wind energy tax breaks as part of a housing bill. And what
happened now?? This eight-year extension of tax breaks in the Senate
legislation definitely would help create a cleaner, more reliable
source of energy. There is now doubt: Solar energy is still more
expensive compared to conventional energy sources like coal or natural
gas and this will remain like that for the next few years. But there
are several tax incentives that are fueling the industry’s growth and
coal and gas plant construction costs are going up while solar costs
are coming down.
Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) sponsored the
renewable energy tax incentives as an amendment to a housing bill last
week. The measure provides up to $500 for consumers to install energy-
efficient products in their homes and extends a production tax credit
for electricity produced from wind, solar and other renewable sources.
Businesses that manufacture and install solar or photovoltaic fuel
cells would get a 30 percent investment tax credit.
This extension of the tax break would be a very important signal for
the whole renewable energy business as it not only provides certainty
to these industries, infusing money into the economy, but creating
high-paying, long-term jobs to help Americans get through these tough
economic times. Without the subsidies, companies will start putting
projects on hold, freezing contractors out of the new work and
companies and governments out of ways to buy more clean technology. In
a statement of a Washington Post Article from April 14, 2008 (Energy
Boost Solar and Wind Businesses Powered by Tax Breaks, by Anita
Huslin), Greg Wetstone, a lobbyist for the American Wind Energy
Association stated: "In the absence of an extension by Memorial Day,
we're looking at 116,000 jobs at risk -- 76,000 in wind and 40,000 in
solar -- and $19 billion in clean energy investment," "We have a lot
of friends in the House, and we need to make them understand that time
is imperative."
There will be a lot of work for the Democrats to clear all the rubble
from the present and past energy politic – hopefully they will get the
chance to try it!
-------------------------------
Posted by 2ajobguide
Find daily updated renewable energy jobs in this free job database:
http://2ajobguide.com/wind_jobs_solar_renewable_energy_jobs.aspx
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