Tax Credits for Renewables – The Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 (H.R. 6049) passed the House on Wednesday. See this from RenewableEnergyWorld.com and this from Gristmill. Although it was looking like a done deal not long ago , see Tax Breaks, Finally, for Renewables , there may yet be choppy waters reconciling the House bill with the Senate’s and getting it out to the White House. Not surprisingly, I am sad to say, the White House has threatened a veto. See this more in-depth story from RenewableEnergyWorld.com. There’s some good inside baseball on the legislation here.
These credits expire at the end of this year and it’s pretty important to get them renewed. The renewables industry continues to put on the pressure. The president of the Solar Energy Industries Association issued this statement saying, among other things, “This legislation secures America’s clean-energy future by closing a tax loophole enjoyed by hedge-fund managers on their “Cayman Island’ income. For the Senate, the choice is now clear: they can either protect tax loopholes for privileged investment managers, or create tens of thousands of green-collar jobs in a troubled economy.”
California Standards – Several months back, the EPA denied California’s request to implement its landmark law limiting global warming pollution from new automobiles. I wrote here about the lawsuit that ensued, filed by California and other states and several environmental organizations. EDF’s general counsel said at the time: “The agency’s decision defies the law, the science and the will of states representing nearly half of the U.S. population.”
California Congressman Henry Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee found recently that the White House had influenced the decision by EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson for political reasons, a clear violation of the ex parte arrangement for EPA decisions of this type. Waxman had Johnson before the committee this week and it was, by all reports, not too pretty. See EPA Chief Silent on White House Involvement in Key Decisions from the Environment News Service. This follows on the report from the committee from December in which they found, as their release was entitled, the White House Engaged in Systematic Effort to Manipulate Climate Change Science.
Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works voted to instruct the administration to sign the waiver allowing the California rule. See this release from the Committee in which California Senator Dianne Feinstein says: “The time has come to take the decision on California’s waiver out of the hands of the EPA. The senior leadership of the EPA has failed to demonstrate that it has the integrity or independence to make decisions based on sound science.” David Doniger, NRDC’s Climate Center Policy Director, said here: “The landmark standards adopted by California and 17 other states will be the single most important step taken so far to curb the heat-trapping pollution that causes global warming. One way or the other , through this new law, a court case, or a new decision by the next president , Americans will soon have cleaner cars as required by California’s clean cars law.”
