Renewable Energy Solar Energy Wind Energy Geothermal Energy Bioenergy Hydropower

Update: US Senate Passes Stimulus Package with Renewable Energy Provisions

February 10, 2009 | 18 Comments

Do you like this news?

Bookmark

Feed

Washington, D.C., United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] The U.S. Senate voted today to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bill (H.R. 1) is the US $839 billion stimulus package that the Obama Administration has been pushing as a means to help the nation recover from the current economic situation. The bill passed by a vote of 61-37, mostly along party lines.

The House of Representatives passed another version of the bill last month by a vote of 244-188. Differences between the House-passed bill and the Senate version in debate involve different funding levels for various technologies and programs. RenewableEnergyWorld.com broke down the Senate and House versions of the bill last week.

The two versions of the bill will now go into conference where the House and Senate will attempt to reconcile the two bills into one that will have the momentum to pass both houses of Congress. Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Max Baucus (D-MT), Harry Reid (D-NV) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) will represent the Senate in the negotiations.

It is expected that some provisions will be taken out of the Senate version of the bill, what provisions those will be remains unclear.

"House and Senate negotiators are expected to start meeting on February 11 to iron out the differences in the hope of sending a final bill to the president by February 16. Reconciling the two bills will not be easy. The three Republicans who voted with the Democrats to give the bill the margin it needed to pass the Senate have not committed to support the final bill when it comes back from conference if the Senate moves too far in the direction of the House in the conference negotiations," Keith Martin, a partner with Chadbourne & Parke said in his analysis of the situation.

However, Martin also said that any provision that is in both bills is expected to be in the final measure sent to the president.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) praised the Senate's passage of the bill but said they will be pushing for some of the provisions, included in the House bill, such as the Department of Energy (DOE) grant program to make it into the final package.

“This stimulus package is a critical down payment on long-term policies to enhance energy security, encourage new economic investment in jobs, and address climate change,” said Greg Wetstone, AWEA’s senior director for Governmental Affairs. “The House DOE grant program is absolutely essential to continuing the growth of wind power and other renewable energy sources through the down economy."

Check back with RenewableEnergyWorld.com for continuing updates on this story as well as industry reactions and analysis of this story throughout the afternoon and the rest of the week.

Additional Information

Breakdown of Renewable Energy Stimulus Provisions

Bioenergy, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, Ocean Energy, Solar Energy, Wind Power

18 Reader Comments

Comment
1 of 18

adrian-wesley-170141

February 10, 2009

Alternative Energy is the next BOOM in the U.S.

Alternative Energy is about to create more investment in the U.S. than any other industry in history.

Think Internet BOOM, Real Estate BOOM, but think BIGGER BOOM.

We get to clean the air for our kids which is amazing as well.

The future is bright green!

Comment
2 of 18

adrian-wesley-170141

February 10, 2009

Canadians need Alternative Energy as well!

AlternativeEnergyinCanada.com

Comment
3 of 18

sherry-jan-156046

February 10, 2009

There could be no better investment in America than to invest in America becoming energy independent! We need to utilize everything in out power to reduce our dependence on foreign oil including using our own natural resources. Create cheap clean energy, new badly needed green jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The high cost of fuel this past year seriously damaged our economy and society. The cost of fuel effects every facet of consumer goods from production to shipping costs. After a brief reprieve gas is inching back up. OPEC will continue to cut production until they achieve their desired 80-100. per barrel. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and SUV's instead had plug-in electric drive trains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota. There is a really good new book out by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now. http://www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com

Comment
4 of 18

cd-qin-169870

February 10, 2009

Lignin is of a highest energy density ( ~35-40kJ/cm3) compared to the other biomass ingredients of cellulous, hemicellulos, and is in comparison with fossil fuels ( ~37kJ/cm3) . Thus the direct use of micro or nano sized lignin together with some useful agents as a transportation fuel will be able to let all governments to meet their renewable biofuel energy targets, without the troubles associated with ethanol and biodiesel.

With a patent-pending technique I have managed to form a lignin/diesel or lignin/gasoline blended fuel. Direct and simple diesel engine tests had shown that it works stably up to 15%(v/v) of lignin in diesel. Water pumping tests by using the diesel engine had proven that lignin had substituted the diesel to provide equivalent power.

Comment
5 of 18

jerry-charlup-164796

February 11, 2009

given the current lack of project financing in the credit markets, the ITC grant (rebate) program is essential to the renewable industry and a real job creator in 2009!

Comment
6 of 18

MattTirpak

February 11, 2009

Hi,

I agree with the above comment by Mr Wesley, its probably going to be a wave more than a boom. Different types of RE for each region. If anyone is interested in a Bike Ride to install Solar PV on the Chicago Schools while getting the kids involved to learn about a future in RE, please check out WWW.Climatecycle.org

The big changes in America and the world start with each one of us, Obama's campaign is really a symbol of what can be done at the grass-roots level.

Comment
7 of 18

Tim-vesely

February 11, 2009

Now we need to make an effort to get more funding from Utility funded programs like CCEF rebate in Connecticut,. Oh gosh!! nevermind, the utility companies want to install solar now too. and take that away from us....Gee maby we should stop giving them a portion of the monthly payment we make each month and let them pay with the profits they reep...

Comment
8 of 18

mark-donahue-165227

February 11, 2009

We are with you here in California, Tim. We need STRONG regulation so the utility companies can't take away our business opps using our own money. Who can help us lobby for this as well as for feed in tariffs

Comment
9 of 18

wayne-bostick-58144

February 11, 2009

A FEW FACTS FOR ALL YOU THAT THINK THE FEDS CAN CURE THE PROBLEM.

ON 8/4/77 (CARTERS REGIME) THE DEPT. OF ENERGY WAS FORMED TO "LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL" !

32 YEARS LATER IT HAS AN ANNUAL BUDGET OF 24.2 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR AND 16,000 EMPLOYEES AND WE SURE HAVE SOLVED THE PROBLEM !?!?!?

AND MANY OF YOU WANT TO GIVE THE FEDS ANOTHER GO WITH MORE GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT ! THE HEIGHT OF STUPIDITY IS DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER HOPING FOR A DIFFERENT OUTCOME !?!?

Comment
10 of 18

rick-schwerdtfeger-41165

February 11, 2009

Well, Wayne. If Reagan didn't come in a tear the solar panels off the roof of the White House as one of his first acts of defiance to the renewable energy world, maybe there would have been a little more support in the administrations and Congresses to follow. Carter's goal was valid, and the DOE would have been effective if the politicians would just let the scientists and engineers do their jobs. Until recently, there has been NO goal of DOE to lessen the dependence on foreign oil because the heads of DOE (and the government in general) have been bought off by the oil lobby for so many years. Private industry can meet the challenges, but some small, stable, long term incentives from the government give assurances to wary financers that the systems can payback for years to come while the technology continues to get cheaper. Ultimately, the economies of scale will drive the costs down, but that initial push is needed.

So if you want to blame someone for the failures of DOE, blame those who voted in the oil-lobby-purchased senators, congress people, and presidents of the past 20+ years.

Comment
11 of 18

arturo-velez-136267

February 11, 2009

Great news! America's on its (green) way!

cd qin: I'd like to know more about your lignin fuel. I have a massive amount of biomass with a very high lignin content and I'd like to assess your technology.

Arturo Velez
Agaveproject2@gmail.com

Comment
12 of 18

geoff-steele-67209

February 11, 2009

I agree with the comment that many Fed agencies have outgrown their usefulness. Agencies cannot be created without the consent of Congress, and a charter that both defines the mission and goals of the agency and establishes budgetary support for it (approved and supported by Congress). Most agencies are created to conceive programs or perform regulatory functions of purported 'public benefit', but all too often, they become bureaucratic 'engines' that grow and engage in 'discretionary' program expansion far beyond the boundaries of their Congressional charters. Some of the worst of these are entitlement programs (i.e. Medicare) that shift the burden of implementation to the states, without sufficient Federal budget support, forcing the states to grow their own bureaucracies, and to raise state taxes to pay the added costs. Agencies that many perceive have outlived their usefulness, gone beyond their Congressional charters, and are growing exponentially in their bureaucracies -- in Washington and the ten Federal regions -- include FEMA, the Dep't. of Energy, the Commerce Department, EPA, Social Security Administration, The Department of Education, and others. The annual amount of expenditure for merely salaries for the legions of bureaucrats involved here is measured in $Billions !! We need more Congressional oversight of this exponential growth in government -- and rigorous oversight of the money spent for it. Instead, Members of Congress (with few exceptions) merely don't care and are voting to pass "omnibus" budget bills each year without even checking (or caring) to investigate what "we the people" are paying for. That's pure LAZINESS on the part of Congress -- yet we've given these people the ability to vote for their OWN pay raises regularly !! It's time to clean House (and the Senate, too) folks... Your money is being frittered away...and you worked too hard for it!!

Comment
13 of 18

wayne-bostick-58144

February 11, 2009

Well Rick I'm sure we now have an honest group in place now who won't take the oil industries money ???? I knew the argument from the left would put the blame on Reagan and Bush/s. I do blame Bush the younger for squandering his opportunity for a positive legacy by not establlishing an energy commission of scientists and doing and supporting nothing.

There in nothing wrong with alternate and revewable energy but it has to be commercially and scientifically viable not a bunch of media supported political flim flam.

Comment
14 of 18

ann-malone-48191

February 11, 2009

Bush the Younger did announce two years ago that America needs to "transition off the oil economy," and he did let oil prices go to more natural levels for a while, just to see what the market could do to bring the (existing!) technologies to mainstream.....
Reagan tried to deregulate natural gas right after breaking up Ma Bell; if he had, the public likely would have been gouged into alternative energy....pity.

It'll be like taking medicine, but energy prices need to go up to more natural market levels which include all costs--exploration, production, environmental clean up, delivery through trade lanes--without socializing any of the cost through the tax structure and military. Maybe if we simply charged the international oil companies for the use of the military.....

Comment
15 of 18

phoenix-woman-63139

February 11, 2009

Wayne, Reagan dismantled all the efforts Carter made to get us towards renewable energy, largely to get the backing of Texas oil men. Meanwhile, remember Cheney's (and McCain's) dismissing conservation? Cheney mocked Jimmy Carter's efforts to get us to conserve, while McCain mocked Obama's discussing how simply keeping our tires inflated properly would save more gas than could ever exist in ANWR.

But really, if people want to see why Republicans stoke anti-government attitudes, the late Lee Atwater -- a prominent Reagan strategist -- explained over twenty years ago that they do it as a way to race-bait; it's understood, especially among Southern and white-flight exurban voters, that cutting taxes -- and thus government -- is a way to hurt black people. From http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/10/i-think-paul-kr.html:

== Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Ni--er, ni--er, ni--er.' By 1968 you can't say 'ni--er' - that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me - because obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'Ni--er, ni--er.'==

Comment
16 of 18

wayne-bostick-58144

February 12, 2009

Phoenix Woman, I believe that the criticism of Carter was to his "let's give up, the country is down the tubes" attitude. Renewables and alternative fuels are replacements not conservation. You can not save your way out of a situation like we are in today. I believe Reagans results speak for themselves and applied to everyone.

As to your equating of cutting taxes and racism .......... I can't even believe you said that !!! I don't equate giving people the right to spend their own money as they want with racism. Even John Kennedy instituted tax cuts !!

Comment
17 of 18

don-toews-159308

February 13, 2009

ABOUT TIME : We are finally on our way to becoming self sufficent, starting to build towards a utopia, a planet with clean air and pure water. All countries need to be self sufficent in food and energy and as this happens i think a lot of the worlds problems will be cleaned up as well

Comment
18 of 18

brad-keplinger-161797

February 15, 2009

ITS ABOUT TIME

WE NEED THIS IN PENDLETON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA

Add Your Comment

Registered users, please make sure to Sign-In. We and others want to know your ideas and opinions. If you are not yet Registered -- it's quick and easy. Just click below.
Thanks!