Treasury and Energy departments release long-awaited rules for grant money

When Congress was debating an extension of the renewable energy tax credits set to expire at the end of 2008, the loudest argument from the wind and solar industries was that letting the tax credits expire would have a deleterious affect on renewable energy development in the United States. And before the credits expired, Congress passed a short term extension of the renewable energy production and investment tax credits.

But then the credit markets froze. There was little to no money to borrow to get projects off the ground. At that point, the extension of the production tax credit was almost moot.

Recognizing this, the authors of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 addressed some of the problems created by the credit freeze by authorizing the Treasury Department to make immediate, direct payments to companies for projects—in lieu of tax credits—for an estimated 5,000 bio-mass, solar, wind and geothermal energy facilities.

And on Thursday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner together announced that they were ready to start doling out that cash, or at least how they would dole it out.

Read more of this story »

Currently, the issue of climate change appears to be on the back burner as governments are focused on the financial problems that have shaken the global economy. It could be several months before politicians return to focusing their attention on long term problems like global warming.

Read more of this story »

Government Guaranteed Revenues for Large Renewable Energy Players

Unlike other industries, renewable energy has government-guaranteed revenues. However it is likely that as the credit crunch plays out, the re-bounders will be big utilities who are not reliant on banks for short term loans rather than start-ups who do.

Read more of this story »

>>More on renewable energy tax credits in Congress

Read more of this story »

The issue of alternative fuels came up for McCain Thursday as well, during a forum at the Aspen Institute. In the past, McCain has said that he opposes tax breaks for wind and solar development because they interfere with the market. Asked about that Thursday, McCain said he has a long record of support for alternative fuels. Asked specifically if he was for renewing tax breaks for wind and solar that expire this year, he surprisingly said, “of course.”

Read more of this story »

For the second time this week, the Senate has voted to block progress on a bill designed to extend Renewable Energy Tax Credits. Although the Bill, that enjoys broad cross-party support, gained a majority of 52-44, Republican opposition meant that it fell just short of the 60 votes needed to proceed.

News that progress on the $17.7 billion package of tax breaks could now be delayed until after the presidential elections in November has been greeted with dismay by the renewables industry. Rhone Resch, President of the Solar Energy Industries Association warned that if the tax credits were allowed to expire at the end of this year it will “result in the loss of billions of dollars in new investments in solar.”

Read more of this story »

Breaking ranks with the the state’s increasingly important solar industry, Ensign said that efforts by the Solar Energy Industry Association to force his hand on tax breaks had in fact had the opposite effect of “personally alienating” him and other senators.

In a scathing letter, later released to the press, Ensign accused the lobby group of squandering goodwill by accusing him of favouring “billionaire hedge fund managers” over job creation in Nevada. Indicating the depth of his feelings on the issue, he went on to say “It is rare to have such overwhelming bipartisan support in today’s political climate but the solar industry had it and your association’s leadership squandered it.”

Nevada solar executives had privately become increasingly unhappy with the Senator’s record of voting against bills containing the tax credits. Ensign said that he opposed the bills because the funds for tax breaks would have been raised by increasing the burden on the oil and gas industry. Earlier this spring, he co-sponsored an alternative approach, calling for tax credits without the corresponding offsets. It made it through the Senate by a vote of 88-8, but has become bogged down in the House.

Read more of this story »

[UPDATE 1: The Consumer First Energy Act which would impose a 'windfall profits tax' on big oil companies, and the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act both failed to move on. The second of those two contained a one year extension of the Production Tax Credit. The votes were largely along party lines. Kate Shepard at Grist provides a good review of the two bills in this report.]

The PTC has been the single biggest policy driver of renewable energy development in the U.S., and the short one and two year extensions (as well as the absence of those extensions) have produced a ‘feast-or-famine‘ cycle of renewable energy growth in the United States, where all new development is virtually frozen in place, awaiting a tax incentive. As it currently stands, the PTC will expire at the end of 2008.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), studies show that 116,000 jobs and more than $19 billion in clean energy investment are at risk from a failure to extend the PTC and other renewable energy tax credits.

Thus far, the biggest hangup for extending the renewable energy tax credits has been the question of funding. Ironically, the Democrats have become the party of fiscal responsibility in Congress, and do not want to pass the bill without a way to pay for it.

Last week at WINDPOWER 2008, I had the opportunity to sit down with Greg Wetstone, Senior Director of Government and Public Affairs for AWEA, and Tom Gray, the Deputy Executive Director. The pair told me that the tax credit issue was really one of fiscal ideology. And that unfortunately, many in Congress had been using the renewable energy tax credits as a “political football.”

Read more of this story »

The renewable energy tax credits were slipped into a housing bill that that did not end up looking the way its lead author, Sen. Chris Dodd really intended it to, remarking earlier in the week that it was “a housing bill, not a Christmas tree.”

However, will the production tax credit and investment tax credit ever make it to the President’s desk to sign?

Read more of this story »

As was reported at Hill Heat, and elsewhere, Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), led a bipartisan group of senators in announcing a bill to incentivize the development of renewable energy and expand energy efficiency in buildings, homes, and appliances. The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Package of 2008 (pdf) will provide some certainty to investors and those individuals and businesses that are considering adding solar, wind, biomass, methane capture, or other clean energy technologies.

Teetering on the brink of passage

Renewable Energy tax packages always face trouble in the Senate, and this dates back to our first energy crises in the 1970s. In a more recent example, a tax package failed repeatedly on the Senate floor, including a $22 billion version that fell one vote short of winning approval as an amendment to a broader energy bill in December. Many Republicans balked at the funding mechanism for the previous renewable energy incentives because they rescinded tax breaks from the big energy companies (which was spun by the right as a “tax increase.”).

Read more of this story »

]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2008/04/04/senate-coalition-introduces-clean-energy-tax-package/feed/ http://cleantechnica.com/2008/03/13/feast-or-famine-cycles-of-clean-energy-development-in-the-us-part-ii/ http://cleantechnica.com/2008/03/13/feast-or-famine-cycles-of-clean-energy-development-in-the-us-part-ii/#comments Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:59:03 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://cleantechnica.com/2008/03/13/feast-or-famine-cycles-of-clean-energy-development-in-the-us-part-ii/ The Solar Thermal Edition

In my first post about the feast or Famine Cycles of American Clean Energy Development, I discussed renewable energy more broadly and used the example of wind to show my point. I also touched upon the up and down nature of federal funding for renewable energy deployment in the late 70s and early 80s. With that said, the following examination adds some more context with a historical-institutional perspective of what went down in the early 80’s, how, and why. And in the spirit of some of the earlier posts this week that covered the technology of solar thermal, and the practical application of solar thermal technology to entire neighborood developments, I have decided to follow suit by writing about solar thermal as well. I hope to show that the decline and slow fazing out of federal support for solar thermal research and development during the Reagan and George Bush administrations has had a substantial effect on where the industry is today.

Read more of this story »

The same thing will happen if the renewable energy tax credits expire

Read more of this story »