Apr 04 2008

Renewable Energy Tax Credits Proposed

A quick update on the renewable energy tax posting from earlier this week. 

United States Senators John Ensign (R-NV), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), led a bipartisan group of senators on Friday to announce a bill designed to encourage the development of renewable energy and expand energy efficiency in buildings, homes and appliances.

"Satisfying our energy needs and reducing our reliance on foreign sources is a challenge that we must meet, but that can only happen with the right incentives in place," commented Ensign, announcing the introduction of the bill into the Senate. He continued: "Our bipartisan bill will help put us on a path toward energy independence with American ingenuity leading the way."

The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008 extends incentives to encourage renewable energy.

The legislation extends the placed-in-service deadline through 2009 for the Production Tax Credit to encourage electricity production using renewable energy resources such as geothermal, wind, biomass, and hydropower facilities. The bills authors argue that with this change, these renewable energy plants will have valuable tax stability for 10 years.

In addition, the bill proposes to extend the solar and fuel cell Investment Tax Credit for eight years to encourage development of these technologies.

We're hopeful that this will finally be the bill to extend the renewable energy tax credits.  It appears to have bipartisan support.  The measure is also co-sponsored by 28 other senators including Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), Ranking Member of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. The bill is also supported by Democrats like Boxer, Feinstein, Biden, and Stabenow; and Republicans like Hutchinson, Dole, Hatch, Stevens, Coleman and Sununu.

Posted by: Keely Wachs | Comments (0) digg delicioussend to a friendprint entry

 

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Energy , Environment , Legislation

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