On Tuesday afternoon the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 93 to 2 voted to extend production tax credits for solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and tidal power plants. John Warner and Jim Webb were among those voting for the legislation. The bill also established tax credits for plug-in electric vehicles and extended credits for energy-efficient improvements to existing homes.
Harry Reid nailed down a bipartisan agreement that sent this sailing through the Senate. The Bush Administration, while expressing some reservations, has agreed to sign the legislation.
Now the vote comes to the House of Representatives, where Nancy Pelosi must lead the Democratic Party into the necessary decision to extend the credits. They will vote on the legislation this week.
After nearly a year of failing to pass this legislation, this must happen this week in order to save the solar industry from rapid decline, and keep the wind and geothermal industries strong. The tax credits would have been extended on December 13th, 2007 if it weren't for John McCain who could have been the deciding vote for the tax credits, but was the only Senator who didn't show up.
This legislation follows compromise legislation regarding drilling of oil and gas.
However, one critical element must be emphasized. Oil and gas have a strong lobby, while renewable energy does not. The renewable energy industry wants the opportunity to compete.
In August of 2005, Barack Obama had a choice to make. He had to vote for compromise legislation that provided several billion dollars in tax credits to the oil and gas industry that Republicans wanted, while providing significant assistance to the renewable energy industry. What was the result of the bill that Obama voted for only after careful consideration? In the three years since the bill was passed, 10,000 MW of wind power, enough for three million homes, have been installed along with approximately 500 MW of solar and geothermal power. Nearly three times as much new renewable generation capacity has been installed as new coal-fired generation capacity. This prevented a massive build out of carbon-dioxide spewing facilities, and created tens of thousands of green jobs.
More critical information below the flip
Jim Moran and the entire Virginia Congressional delegation must heed this previous success and support this legislation. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are the primary solutions for climate change, energy security, and the fight to bring our economy from the brink of collapse.
The legislation, H.R. 6049, is titled the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008
Please call your Congressmen, whether they are a Democrat or Republican, and tell them to support this legislation!
For more information, see
Open Congress
They have to first do exploration to find the oil and gas and also drill down to get it and won't be able to extract the oil or gas for 5 to 10 years from the time they start. Just a random thought in light of the whole debate.
Everyone say it with me.
Cheap slogans trump logic any day. Learn it, live it, love it.