July 31, 2008
Despite the efforts of advocacy groups, trade associations and public-interest groups, including over 3500 Solar Citizens, Congress failed this week for the eighth time since June 2007 to pass legislation extending tax credits for ordinary Americans investing in renewable energy.
In parliamentary language, the motion to invoke cloture on the bill (S.3335) was defeated on the Senate floor by a vote of 51-43. In everyday language, Democrats and Republicans could not, after all this time, come to agreement on whether the clean energy tax credits should or should not be funded by tax revenue garnered elsewhere. In this standoff, Senate Republicans were standing squarely with the Bush Administration, which firmly believes they should not.
With but a week to run before Congress’ August recess, it seems likely that our senators will vacate Washington next Friday without resolving this vital piece of business. And as for hoping they’ll do a better job in September, let’s not forget that thirty of them will be focused on a re-election race in their home state in November, rather than business on the Senate floor.
It’s not Solar Nation’s role to throw blame at one political party or another, but given that our senators have had over a year to get this vital legislation enacted and have signally failed to do so, we can legitimately label this Congress as non-functioning, impotent, and of no use to the American people. The losers, as always, are the people, made to stand at the very back of the line as their representatives in government scrap with each other for first place.
We’d like to say how much we admire our elected legislators in Washington.
No, really, we’d like to be able to say that. Trouble is……
May 20, 2008
Tuesday May 20th is the National Day of Action for Clean Energy. It’s a day on which companies, industry groups, advocacy organizations, faith-based coalitions and many others are making a joint effort to urge Congressional legislators to extend clean energy tax incentives (credits) without delay.
You can find the Solar Nation Action Alert here.
To recap: Congress has spent nearly a year debating how to pay for these expiring tax incentives, which make it cheaper for individuals and companies to install renewable energy systems and build energy-efficient buildings. The House doesn’t want to pass any legislation without an identified source of funding, and the Senate won’t consider raising taxes elsewhere to fund the clean energy provisions.
Call it stalemate, call it deadlock, call it a stand-off; the bottom line is, the clean energy revolution is being strangled. Every day that passes without an extension places more green jobs and investment at risk* and slows down our transition to a clean energy economy.
*Estimated at 119,000 jobs and $20 billion. The report can be seen here.
The bill now working its way through Congress is HR6049; it’s summarized here.
April 14, 2008
Now it’s thank ‘n’ spank time for senators
If you’ve been wondering what happened to the bill introduced by U.S. Sens. Cantwell and Ensign that would, among other measures, extend solar investment tax credits for residential and commercial use, here’s some up-to-the-minute news.
By a vote of 88-8*, the Cantwell-Ensign language was successfully added as an amendment to the Senate’s comprehensive housing bill (HR 3221). This bill passed the Senate on Thursday April 10 with an estimated $6.6 billion in tax credits allocated to renewables, and including a lifting of the $2000 cap on residential solar installation credits.
This is a landmark development on Capitol Hill, since attempts to get the Senate this far have failed three times in the last year. Of course, on those occasions the initial impetus came from the House, and the stumbling block for the Senate was always the source of funding for the tax credits–reducing some of the government subsidies enjoyed by the oil and gas industry. In this case it’s a Senate-originated bill, with no identified source of funding, and that means that the problem this time around may be with the House. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), head of the Finance Committee’s Energy Sub-committee, has said that the House is unlikely to agree to the provisions without spending offsets.
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