What a Difference a Year Makes—Or Does It?

Last year at this time we were just getting our knees back under the desk after a trip to the Solar Power Conference and Expo in Long Beach, CA.  The renewable energy industry was gearing up to intensify its lobbying of Congress for extensions to clean energy tax credits into 2009 and beyond, and the general mood at the solar show was that prospects were good for the industry, so long as the tax credits were extended in the hugely important upcoming Congressional Energy Bill vote.

That was in October 2007.  And sure enough, in December of that year the all-important tax credits were dropped from the energy bill signed by President Bush…

As 2008 ground on, the above phrase—the all-important tax credits were dropped—was summoned again and again from the clipboard whenever tax credit extensions appeared on the Congressional block.  It turned out to be not an auctioneer’s block but an executioner’s, and at times you’d have thought we were reliving the French Revolution, so frequently was it used.

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