By Zachary Shahan •
December 20, 2009
In the midst of the Copenhagen negotiations last week, the White House announced a proposal to give a huge increase in tax breaks to manufacturers who produce wind, solar, geothermal, or other clean energy technologies. The goal of the tax breaks is to stimulate more job growth and promote clean energy technology more in the US.
With clean energy technology poised to become the third largest sales sector in the world, Obama and Biden realize that they must stimulate this field in the US a bit more to get the jobs that go with that growth.
In the proposal set forth by the White House on Thursday, new or expanded factories making clean energy technology (i.e. electric vehicles, solar panels, high-speed trains, and wind turbines) can get a 30% tax credit. This raises the current cap on these tax credits from $2.3 billion to $7.3 billion.
In addition to the tax credit, Obama’s proposed ‘jobs plan’ includes “increased investment in public works, small business tax cuts and incentives for homeowners who retrofit their houses to be more energy efficient.”
Congress will need to approve this jobs plan for it to go through.
By Yael Borofsky •
November 1, 2009
As the Senate version of pending climate legislations, Kerry-Boxer’s CEJAPA, heads for mark-up on Tuesday, voices calling for $15 billion annually for clean energy research and development are starting to gain traction. Earlier this week, Google’s Director of Climate Change and Energy, Dan Reicher joined the ranks of think tanks such as, Brookings Institution, Third Way, and the Breakthrough Institute, not to mention President Barack Obama, when he called on the Senate EPW committee to include this funding in the bill.
According to Reicher’s testimony (emphasis in original):
“Chairman Boxer, it is essential that Congress address this serious energy R&D short-fall by incorporating President Obama’s goal of $15 billion per year in federal energy R&D spending in final climate legislation.”
This testimony followed on the heals of a letter and discussion paper from the nation’s leading universities to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, emphasizing the need for a bottom line investment of $5 billion dollars annually in R&D, significantly more than would be allocated under both House and Senate version of climate and energy legislation.
