Congress Blows Hot and Cold Over Tax Breaks for Wind Energy

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Jimish of AK 10:25AM October 21, 2010

In the Senate, Washington State Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell and Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign negotiated a bill, S.2821, that garnered 44 bipartisan cosponsors to extend the renewable energy tax credits for one year. The Senate approved adding it to the housing bill by a vote of 88-8. Then, it was stripped by House leaders citing Blue Dog oppostion (@40 votes) because there were no tax increases to pay for the $8.2 billion cost. More than 120 House Republicans cosponsored the identical companion bill, but only 1 Democrat. Democratic leaders rejected a compromise by Sen. Ensign to off-set the $8.2 billion cost with a 1/20 of one percent reduction in spending over 10 years, exempting programs for veterans. Over 2 years, 8 times -- 4 times each, the Senate defeated House bills that would temporarily extend the tax credits for one year along with other more controversial tax measures and permanent tax increases. 4 times the offset was higher taxes on American oil and gas companies. 4 times the offset was higher taxes on multinational companies and hedge funds. Politics is the art of the possible and it is leaders who are responsible for advancing legislation that will become law, IF they want a law. Speaker Pelosi is neither incompetent, nor insane to propose 2 failed formulas 4 times each. Nor is Sen. Reid incompetent nor insane to acquiese in her strategy. Their actions DO show that repeatedly targeting and blaming 7 "vulnerable" Republican Senators (who are up for reelection) for blocking renewable energy tax credits is a higher priority for them rather than providing a stable and supportive federal tax policy to increase cleaner, domestic, renewable energy production and green collar domestic manufacturing companies. And the Solar Energy Industry Association leadership in DC ignored the bipartisan Cantwell-Ensign approach and carried the water for the Pelosi/Reid strategy. What Pelosi and Reid have done is send an unmistakable signal to businesses world wide that America is hostile or indifferent to renewable energy. Solar and wind companies and their employees are left high and dry. Since Pelosi is unalterably opposed to off shore drilling, she has left herself and the Congress virtually no options for a bill that could become law that would extend these tax credits. That is the sad rest of the story.

lisa wright of VA 10:16AM August 23, 2008

In the Senate, Washington State Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell and Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign negotiated a bill, S.2821, that garnered 44 bipartisan cosponsors to extend the renewable energy tax credits for one year. The Senate approved adding it to the housing bill by a vote of 88-8. Then, it was stripped by House leaders citing Blue Dog oppostion (@40 votes) because there were no tax increases to pay for the $8.2 billion cost. More than 120 House Republicans cosponsored the identical companion bill, but only 1 Democrat. Democratic leaders rejected a compromise by Sen. Ensign to off-set the $8.2 billion cost with a 1/20 of one percent reduction in spending over 10 years, exempting programs for veterans. Over 2 years, 8 times -- 4 times each, the Senate defeated House bills that would temporarily extend the tax credits for one year along with other more controversial tax measures and permanent tax increases. 4 times the offset was higher taxes on American oil and gas companies. 4 times the offset was higher taxes on multinational companies and hedge funds. Politics is the art of the possible and it is leaders who are responsible for advancing legislation that will become law, IF they want a law. Speaker Pelosi is neither incompetent, nor insane to propose 2 failed formulas 4 times each. Nor is Sen. Reid incompetent nor insane to acquiese in her strategy. Their actions DO show that repeatedly targeting and blaming 7 "vulnerable" Republican Senators (who are up for reelection) for blocking renewable energy tax credits is a higher priority for them rather than providing a stable and supportive federal tax policy to increase cleaner, domestic, renewable energy production and green collar domestic manufacturing companies. And the Solar Energy Industry Association leadership in DC ignored the bipartisan Cantwell-Ensign approach and carried the water for the Pelosi/Reid strategy. What Pelosi and Reid have done is send an unmistakable signal to businesses world wide that America is hostile or indifferent to renewable energy. Solar and wind companies and their employees are left high and dry. Since Pelosi is unalterably opposed to off shore drilling, she has left herself and the Congress virtually no options for a bill that could become law that would extend these tax credits. That is the sad rest of the story.

lisa wright of VA 10:00AM August 23, 2008

The Facists Harry Reid and Rick Durbin are HOLDING up all legislation because they wont allow a vote on ONE drilling ammendment. And they want it to require 60 votes to pass. They know it will fail because 7-10 senators aren't even in attendance this week. What a bunch of liars and thieves. Vote these radicals out of office. Kudos for Sen Coburn for objecting to wasteful spending. Go Tom Go.

Dean of DC 1:14PM July 31, 2008

Actually, Chris, "paygo" in government works (at least) four ways.
Taxing more to spend more.
Taxing more on this to tax less on that.
Spending less on this to spend more on that.
Taxing less and spending less altogether.

Daniel David of NM 11:35AM July 30, 2008

"1) This is example of a reason you need Democrats (liberals) running your country. If the so-called "conservatives" will not allow "paygo" (increasing one tax when you decrease another) to operate, then liberals must do it alone. Otherwise you have perpetual nonsense gridlock like above."
I thought you were an accountant. PAYGO is not increasing a tax when decreasing another. PAYGO is paying for things as money comes in for them, i.e. making corresponding spending increases/decreases with corresponding tax cuts/increases.

Chris of AZ 6:50PM July 29, 2008

Forty-three leading investors managing $1.5 trillion in assets sent a letter today to Senate leaders urging them to extend the renewable energy and energy efficiency tax credits. The letter cites a February 2008 study by Navigant showing that 116,000 jobs and $19 billion in investment in wind and solar power could be lost in 2009 if the tax provisions expire. The letter can be found at www.ceres.org or by emailing me at fleming@ceres.org..

Peyton Fleming of MA 3:12PM July 29, 2008

I don't know about CA or NM but we love our wind turbines in NE.
The reason wind is looked at so fondly by utilities these days (around the world) is because it's cheaper than any of the non-fossil fuel alternatives. Including nuclear.
Nuclear has so many federal and state subsidies jacked into it (and that has been the case ever since "Atoms for Peace" pushed it on the utilities - 100 billion is a recent estimate) that it should be rebranded socialist energy. BTW, the production tax breaks are the same for new nuclear already but they got a much longer period for theirs for some odd reason.
What's double fun with the socialist angle is that since there is next to no nuclear manufacturing industry in the USA these days, we get to ship a huge chunk of our money to Areva in France. Areva which is 90% owned by the French government.
Maybe we can all the new nukes "Freedom Plants"?
Plan on seeing a boom in the little noted but reasonably priced compressed air energy storage (CAES) industry as the penetration of wind, solar, combined heat and power (CHP) and other intermittent sources become a larger part of the grid.
The University of Kassel in Germany has already demonstrated that renewables plus a bit of storage can take care of all the 24/7 needs that modern grid demands. And that's not even counting the potential benefits of "smart grid" technology.

Homer Simpson of NE 11:09AM July 29, 2008

1) This is example of a reason you need Democrats (liberals) running your country. If the so-called "conservatives" will not allow "paygo" (increasing one tax when you decrease another) to operate, then liberals must do it alone. Otherwise you have perpetual nonsense gridlock like above.
2) Seems to me that wind is an unstable source of electricity, operating only when the wind blows. (See first poster's comment.) Why are we not using A LOT of wind to put energy where it can be stored? Such as in separating the hydrogen out of water for use in our cars? Wind stopped blowing? Okay.
We captured the energy and stored it for use later--as hydrogen.

Daniel David of NM 10:45AM July 29, 2008

Hopefully the tax credits will expire. I'm absolutely ammazed that the media is so uninformed as to how the energy supply works and is just buying into this wind energy hype.
I live in windmill country near Palm Springs, CA where they have 4,000+ windmills. I can see when they work and mostly don't. I was lucky enought to obtain 15 years of their production records from SCE and even I was stunned1 all THESE WINDMILLS ONLY GENERATE 100+/- MW PER YEAR, INTERMITTENTLY, of which only 6% [6 MW] are generated at peak need times. To put this in context, Edison uses 13,000 MW per year.
Because wind is unstable, the windmills can only genertae 14 to 20% of their capacity, the utilities need to have the same amount of power available from conventional sources, ready to take over in a moments notice.
The bottom line is that wind is a DUPLICATION of what the utilities must have, otherwise there would be black outs.
While the public is being fleeced, the media is uninformed and uninterested. The people living next to them are impacted with noise, visual blight, Industrial windmill slums and their property values plummet.
The only green transmission has been the $'s into the wind industry [think T.Boone], the polititions pockets while all we get stuck with is high electric bills. Anyone interested in the records, just e-mail me at bobweit@msn.com.

Alexandra Weit of CA 10:57PM July 28, 2008