U.S. House Passes Renewable Energy Tax Credit Extension Bill

Obviously most of the governement is still being paid by the Oil industry to slow down the progress to renewables. How many more billions of profits does it take to open our eyes. They are sucking us dry because they know the end is in sight but they will still pay off the governements to slow things down. I'm asshamed to see a vote where 263-160 voted for this pitifull extension. It should have been more like 422 - 1 (1 being Bush)
Are these people really representing the country, or the oil industry, they should be fired right away by the people. We need a responsible governement to finally be voted in.

Wake up people and don't vote for this traitors.

A one year extension for the renewable energy industry sounds like a joke if our government is really serious on development of sustainable sources. It should be for a minimum of 5 years in order for energy businesses to have some assurance since the construction of any new facilities may take over a year. If the construction cannot be completed within the limited frame, all the benefits are lost.

If our government is supposed to work for the good of the country, they should be showing more responsibility in their decisions.

With oil past $133/barrel and with no let-up seen in the rising prices, our government should realize that the cost of energy is going to be changing our entire life style and there are going to be millions of disgruntled voters come November. All I can say is that our Congress is acting ignorantly and has to wake up to what is going on.

adrianakau2aol.com

If any bill has the potential to help the middle class American, energy independence or the economy, it is a guarantee that Bush will veto it. He stays true to his oath, "Never do good, neither by inaction nor action."

The article link didn't work for me-- here's a summary of the bill. Among other things, the residential solar credit is now capped at $4k from $2k (looking at the bill text, it appears to take effect upon enactment of the bill, so it applies to 2008 installs). The small wind credit is $500/500W up to $4k.

Summary:
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/110/bill.pdf

Actual Text:
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/110/6049.pdf

I'd agree that this is WAY to little and WAY too late. I'm astonished that so many voted against this.

A thubms up to the Republicans that voted in favor!

The tax credit should be 100% and extended until every house and building produces its own clean energy. We need to get serious about wind and solar. Electric cars produce no co2. Thanks for nothing congress.

Thanks for the citation to the study re: $200 billion annually in fossil fuel subsidies.

Mr. Merrill: are you paid by the fossil fuel industry? If so, please admit it.

People are waking up to peak oil and the damage fossil fuels have done. We need to get busy and start transitioning NOW -- not later. The WSJ is finally publishing articles that we may not have as much oil as the oil companies say we do. What?! You mean the oil industry would lie to us?

And the natural gas industry is arguing that we'll find lots of methane lakes on Titan, a moon of Saturn, Jupiter, and -- you guessed it -- Uranus. This is the testimony submitted by the Clean Skies Foundation, flaks for the natural gas industry. And we're going to move to a hydrogen economy because...the market demands it!

How sad that this is the best our country can do. And look at the changes to Lieberman-Warner -- pitiful.

We're giving billions to 'clean' coal -- what a joke. We're pretending that electric utilities, who have made billions and billions over the decades, and are still burning 1.1 billion tons of coal each year (adding ~3 billion tons/year of CO2 to the atmosphere) -- somehow need 'help.' As if !#$!#$ our children, the poor people of the planet, and being the major cause of global warming weren't enough.

Utilities that do a pittance in energy efficiency are lauded as 'visionary,' while continuing to burn coal, push gasified coal, and build natural gas plants as fast as they can.

Natural gas went up nearly 100% this year, and has gone up an average of 15.8%/year for the past decade.

In Colorado, Xcel wants to build 1,500 MW of new natural gas. Wow! Great idea! Let's burden our children with even MORE stranded assets! Then they can deal with drought, lack of a working energy infrastructure, massive species extinction and runaway climate change!

Anyone want to join a new political party, called the Ironic Party?

It is particularly galling that sustantial societal subsidies to promote renewable energy are in fact necessary to simply level the playing field with existing dirty energy. The extent of subsidy to dirty energy is certainly debately, but it is very clear that there are huge subsidies in place for primary coal, oil, and natural gas production. Of course these industries do not disclose their subsidies, and they are well-hidden at all levels, including federal, state, and local. Previous studies (see the meta-study in Annu. Rev. Energy Environ. 2001. 26:361, with average of twelve studies placing the subsidy amount at around $200B per year). The subsidies to dirty energy dwarf the proposed subsidies to renewables, by about an order of magnitude ($400B vs $54B over two years). If you think total and slavish dependence on foreign oil/gas and risking catastrophic climate change are not the way to go, then let's begin a campaign to get rid of government promotion of dirty energy. The US should ramp down-and-out the dirty fuel subidies over a five-year period and fund efficiency and renewable R&D with that money.

President Bush triumphantly adds to his record as the best hypocrite to ever sit as president by threatening veto. Of course he doesn't have the people's interests in mind, he has only big existing businesses in mind which he has conflated with the US interest generally. A truly 19th century philosophy.

Mr Merrill, Congress has tried 4 times to pass these very necessary and beneficial tax incentives for renewable energy and each time a hand full of Republican Senators has killed these provisions because they were to be funded by reducing tax subsidies to the oil companies. How intelligent is that. I do think about these issues every day and I do research and I write my congress people repeatedly, but this administration continues to pander to big oil, big coal, and their corporate friends. Yes, I feel frustrated and I feel angry as do many others. So take your 'political underwear' and give it to John McCain.

Your silly anti-Bush statements show you guys & gals as being naive and lacking in any deep thoughts. Your deep hatred for the guy is irrational?? I don't see that Bush has any of this so called adversion to renewable energy - just an adversion to continue spending more and more of your tax dollars in a never ending parade of unfunded tax programs.

Think a little more with your intellegence and less with your "feelings". Quit allowing your political underwear to be exposed.

You have the power. Vote them out. Vote in someone who is not hostage to big money. Someone who's support base is the people. what a stingy, short sited bill.

Bush isn't interested in helping the American people it's about the big oil corporations and the power and influence they buy. Any Bill that will help average Americans Bush said he will veto it, he has to be the worst president this country ever had.

Mr. Merrill, How many of our tax dollars have been and are being spent in an unjustified war the American people were lied into. TRUE conservatives would agree this an incredible waste of tax $. This war was designed to keep Iraqi oil out of the market place, and has succeeded. There is your $130 barrel of oil.

I certainly agree some of the comments here are written from the heart, lacking particulars and are often indefensable. Make no mistake though, we are tired of being talked down to by mindless monkeys who get their new from FOX and buy into this administrations criminal behavior.

Mr. Anderson, do you really think we should spend our money exporing for oil, a resource we will have to abandon as our main transportation fuel anyway. Not very bright.

your quote "They need tax breaks to make oil exploration viable process." With oil companies making record breaking profits, money that is so obscene it is hard to even imagine, yet you really believe this?

Point.
Renewables need the tax incentives to bring them into the mainstream energy supply. As a people, we deserve this.

From the actual vote, those voting against the extension are below. I suggest they all be contacted an informed their positions are contrary to their constituents:
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Bachmann
Bachus
Barrett (SC)
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boozman
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Broun (GA)
Brown (SC)
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Chabot
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cubin
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Emerson
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves
Hall (TX)
Hastings (WA)
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Hunter
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Johnson (IL)
Jordan
Keller
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
Lamborn
Lampson
Latta
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller, Gary
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Paul
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pickering
Pitts
Poe
Price (GA)
Putnam
Radanovich
Ramstad
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reynolds
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Sali
Saxton
Scalise
Schmidt
Sessions
Shadegg
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (TX)
Stearns
Sullivan
Tancredo
Terry
Thornberry
Turner
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield (KY)
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman (VA)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)

Response to Bryan Shull comments.
Actually failure to supply a viable energy source will result in a sudden drop of supply. This will cause sudden increases in price and spot shortages. Cheap energy is what fuels our economy, without it can put economy in to depression. You remember what happened in the 70s. A gradual phase in is a more viable solution. Energy policies need to be thought out in long term strategy.
After reading last year's corporate report for Exxon Mobil I did some calculations on how much they made on gallon of gas. Profits work out to about 18 cents per gallon of gas. Oil companies like Exxon Mobil are huge international corporations. Exxon Mobil made the majority of their profits from their over sea's operations. The government takes far more in taxes from gas sales. Then again it's hard for you to imagine the size of these oil companies.
Bryan Shull comment.
Renewables need the tax incentives to bring them into the mainstream energy supply.
Response;
Government incentives are good to promote renewables, but they should not be the sole means of support the technology. Supplying a 50% or more incentive for renewables in order to get wide acceptance would indicate economic viability issues.
For instance a properly sized solar hot water system can have payback periods less than five years can be achived. So with this information most every home should have solar hot water system.
On the other hand PV systems typically have payback periods over 15 years. In most cases pay backs without government incentives are 20 years or more. Then equipment life cycle verses payback becomes an issue.

Extending the solar 30% ITC through 2014 is huge! Combined with state rebates and tax credits, this will spur the deployment of existing technologies and support commercialization of new applications like solar thermal absorption HVAC and industrial process heat.

Then United States is so far behind in using renewable resources that it is embarassing, and we can thank not only the oil companies, but the power companies, that own government officials, they think we will be hurting their wallets, and the public in general has no clue what it's about and that using these resources will actually put money back in their pockets. They just see the initial cost and not the payback, I see this daily as I am in the alternative energy business, we need these tax credits so more people will have an incentive to purchase alternative energy

Dear Mr. Merrill,

Upon reading the the many intelligent responses to this energy bill, I hope it is clear to you that you are the one without deep thoughts.

p.s. The word is spelled "aversion" not "adversion".