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Late last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6899, a bill that contains extensions for the Production and Investment Tax Credits (PTC and ITC) for renewable energy, by a vote of 236-189.
According to sources close to the legislative process, the Senate has reached consensus on a different bill that also includes extensions to the PTC and ITC and could vote to pass the Senate version of the bill later this week.
H.R. 6899 which reportedly will not receive any consideration in the U.S. Senate, contains a one-year extension of the production tax credit for wind energy, a three-year extension of the production tax credit for biomass, geothermal, hydropower, landfill gas and waste-to-energy systems. It also contains an eight-year extension of the commercial ITC for solar energy and fuel cells and raises the cap for the residential energy-efficient property credit from US $2,000 to US $4,000.
According to sources close to the legislative process, the Senate has reached consensus on a different bill that also includes extensions to the PTC and ITC and could vote to pass the Senate version of the bill later this week. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) made the announcement yesterday.
The agreement includes ITC and PTC extensions with a total value of approximately US $17 billion, paid for in part by freezing the tax deduction for the domestic manufacturing activities of American oil and gas companies and tightening the rules by which oil and gas companies pay taxes on income earned overseas and freeing general fund monies with increased payments into the oil spill liability trust fund as new drilling is considered. Other pay-fors include a one-year extension of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act surtax at the current level and increasing reporting requirements for brokers on sales of stock.
This agreement, which has been under development for the last week includes an 8-year extension of the commercial ITC, a 2-year extension of the residential ITC, removal of the cap for the residential energy-efficient property credit, a one-year extension of the wind energy PTC and a three-year extension of PTCs for all other qualifying facilities.
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Targets are all senators and representatives (since whatever bill has legs will hit both chambers sooner or later).
You can see it at http://capwiz.com/re-action/go/S6049
regards,
Now THAT act, if in fact correct, would require some 'splainin Lucy...
If you wanted to start a wind machine project today, you could NOT get the land to site it on, the right of way permissions and legal permits to start construction, let alone ordering and building the physical tower(s) let alone get the inter-connections to the grid made in 1 year. So why this 1 year limitation on the tax credit that no one besides god almighty could qualify a new project for?
It can only "Help" somebody's pre-existing projects get enough time to get their paperwork in order to get on the federal gravy train for projects they have already committed to and gotten well started, so as to increase their profits.
I do not understand either. Maybe John Gallegher has the right idea - don't vote for anyone in power now.
I also wish I knew what it was going to take to get the 60 votes in the Senate we need for cloture.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that this is last time we have to visit this topic and it gets done.
DCM
I don't think that any politician of either party is going to back continuations in subsidies with any real payback, i.e. install a 100 Mw of hydro you pretty much get that back 24/7; install 100 MW of wind and you get back 25 MW that has to be supplemented for off wind and low wind periods.
Besides it's becoming fairly obviously that wind and solar are dominated by European and Asian firms; Americans are turning into 'installers' for their products.
Congress is focusing on oil and gas priorities and subsidies for alt. energy vehicles and fleet conversions.
New construction has halted nation wide, and the bulk of installs in solar were on new homes; retrofits are problematic and expensive.
Sorry, for the bleak assessment, but second mortgages used to install solar and wind have just gotten very difficult to get. CONGRESS is already bailing out the failed home mortgage lenders, and some shaky banks; don't expect them to carry the solar and wind people on their back as well.
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