I've mentioned the question of the renewable energy tax credits any number of times at this blog, most recently on September 21 and 24 below. Well, the House, not surprisingly, did not embrace the Senate's bill from September 23. For one thing, the Senate bill, somewhat out of left field and only to placate Republican Senators and the White House, gives new tax breaks for refineries to develop oil from shale and tar sands or for coal liquefaction. These aims are entirely counterproductive to either helping the renewable energy industry in this country or to reducing greenhouse gases. The Senate bill also was an omnibus package that included, among other things, a one-year reprieve for 20 million people from the alternative minimum tax (not in itself a bad thing, certainly).
The House, as some predicted, created a stand-alone bill for the renewables and some other related infrastructure initiatives (as well as personal and business tax relief items) – the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Tax Act of 2008 (H.R. 7060). It passed on September 26 by a vote of 257 , 166. This is, not incidentally, a terrific piece of legislation overall with provisions supporting not only renewables but also energy efficiency projects, green building, and the smart grid, not to mention credits for research. See this story, US renewables tax break imbroglio rumbles on, from the British news service "BusinessGreen" and this, House OKs extending renewable energy tax credits, from Reuters. (For a little deeper look and some inside baseball, see this from "Congressional Quarterly.")
With the Senate and House bills differing so, and it being past time for Congress to break for the elections , and with the little matter of the $700 billion financial industry bailout somewhat reducing Congress's ability to focus on extraneous matters , it doesn't look as if the tax credits are going to fly until, at least, the lame duck session between the elections and the inauguration of the new Congress and President. Given how difficult this has all been, it might not come into being even then. It is distinctly possible that the next Congress will be taking this up. What will the disruption in the tax credits mean for the renewables industry? It won't be good, but it won't be fatal by any stretch of the imagination. As noted in my last post below, we are already in a renewables revolution. The only question is how fast will it come , and will it be fast enough to avert catastrophic climate change.
