June 30, 2009
What part of “our planet’s future is in your hands” do our congresspersons not understand?
Despite the tendency of certain Administrations to have scientific truth rewritten by public relations professionals, the knowledge that carbon emissions must be greatly reduced on both national and planetary scales has become rooted in the national consciousnesses in recent years. For some time now, our response to the guy in the local bar whose favorite line is “this global warming nonsense” has been: just because a piece of news is unwelcome, it doesn’t mean it’s untrue…
From Here to There…
We have to believe that if a barfly can be made to understand the overarching need for emissions reductions, there’s a good chance that a preponderance of lawmakers in Washington already do. And yet, the events in our nation’s capital in recent weeks have given us cause to wonder whether a number of them have checked their understanding on the Capitol steps. Because what started as a great idea by President Obama to reduce carbon emissions and create a clean energy industry full of green jobs has become, in Congressional hands, an exercise in satisfying short-term priorities and local business concerns. (more…)
July 31, 2008
Despite the efforts of advocacy groups, trade associations and public-interest groups, including over 3500 Solar Citizens, Congress failed this week for the eighth time since June 2007 to pass legislation extending tax credits for ordinary Americans investing in renewable energy.
In parliamentary language, the motion to invoke cloture on the bill (S.3335) was defeated on the Senate floor by a vote of 51-43. In everyday language, Democrats and Republicans could not, after all this time, come to agreement on whether the clean energy tax credits should or should not be funded by tax revenue garnered elsewhere. In this standoff, Senate Republicans were standing squarely with the Bush Administration, which firmly believes they should not.
With but a week to run before Congress’ August recess, it seems likely that our senators will vacate Washington next Friday without resolving this vital piece of business. And as for hoping they’ll do a better job in September, let’s not forget that thirty of them will be focused on a re-election race in their home state in November, rather than business on the Senate floor.
It’s not Solar Nation’s role to throw blame at one political party or another, but given that our senators have had over a year to get this vital legislation enacted and have signally failed to do so, we can legitimately label this Congress as non-functioning, impotent, and of no use to the American people. The losers, as always, are the people, made to stand at the very back of the line as their representatives in government scrap with each other for first place.
We’d like to say how much we admire our elected legislators in Washington.
No, really, we’d like to be able to say that. Trouble is……
May 20, 2008
Tuesday May 20th is the National Day of Action for Clean Energy. It’s a day on which companies, industry groups, advocacy organizations, faith-based coalitions and many others are making a joint effort to urge Congressional legislators to extend clean energy tax incentives (credits) without delay.
You can find the Solar Nation Action Alert here.
To recap: Congress has spent nearly a year debating how to pay for these expiring tax incentives, which make it cheaper for individuals and companies to install renewable energy systems and build energy-efficient buildings. The House doesn’t want to pass any legislation without an identified source of funding, and the Senate won’t consider raising taxes elsewhere to fund the clean energy provisions.
Call it stalemate, call it deadlock, call it a stand-off; the bottom line is, the clean energy revolution is being strangled. Every day that passes without an extension places more green jobs and investment at risk* and slows down our transition to a clean energy economy.
*Estimated at 119,000 jobs and $20 billion. The report can be seen here.
The bill now working its way through Congress is HR6049; it’s summarized here.
May 9, 2008
Have you noticed the fatal flaws in the year-long string of unsuccessful attempts in Congress to keep tax credits alive for solar installations?
In brief, they’ve all been about funding: the bills either targeted oil & gas industry revenues to pay for the tax credits, or they had no source of funding at all. So they all ran into roadblocks manned, respectively, by Senate Republicans or House Democrats. To this day, no-one is willing to budge an inch from their position, even with legislation as important as this.
This week we heard something different from Capitol Hill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are urging the House Ways & Means Committee to support a small ($6-8 billion) renewable energy tax extenders package that would include Solar and that would be funded, not from the oil & gas industry but from the reporting of credit-card transactions to the IRS.
It’s a new and potentially winning strategy, but it could still fail if House and Senate Republicans–particularly those on the Finance and Ways & Means committees–try to reject the package out of hand. If they indicate that they are leaning this way, House Democrats could very well be discouraged from moving forward with this innovative approach.
We’re targeting just ten senators on the Finance Committee and three representatives on the Ways & Means Committee*, and if you’re a constituent of one of them we urgently need you to call their Washington office and make sure they understand what’s at stake here.
CAN YOU HELP?
(more…)
May 5, 2008
Congressional leadership has done an about-face. After a year of unsuccessful attempts to get Congress to authorize long-term extensions to solar energy investment tax credits by enclosing the measures in energy bills and economic stimulus packages, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid had been planning to include these measures in the Iraq War supplemental legislation. We now understand that they may decide to drop the renewable energy provisions from this bill.
This is a serious setback and will mean great hardship for the solar energy community. Spending $110 billion for security in Iraq without spending a dime on energy security in the United States does nothing to advance us as a renewable energy society.
Read more and take action here!
April 22, 2008
So much for that idea…..
After three unsuccessful tries by the House of Representatives in the last year, the U.S. Senate made its own attempt this month to pass legislation to extend tax credits for renewable energy installations and energy efficiency. The bill introduced by U.S. Sens. Cantwell and Ensign became an amendment to the Senate’s comprehensive housing bill (HR 3221), and passed the Senate by 88 votes to 8* on April 10. Included in the bill were $6.6 billion in tax credits for renewables, and a lifting of the $2000 cap on residential solar installations.
What was not included in it, unfortunately, was a method of funding the tax credits, and we now hear that the House has no intention of passing a bill without such “pay-fors”.
With earlier attempts the initial impetus came from the House, and the stumbling block for the Senate was always the source of funding for the tax credits–reducing some of the government subsidies enjoyed by the oil and gas industry. In this case it was a Senate-originated bill with no identified source of funding, and a week after it passed the upper chamber, that lack of revenue base sealed its doom. (more…)
April 21, 2008
Roller coasters have, by design, a multitude of ups and downs, but it’s comforting even to thrill-seekers to know they rarely become completely derailed. The roller coaster that represents the latest iteration of the Congressional energy bill, however, has finally done that.
The news from Washington is that the House of Representatives has no intention of moving forward with the “Cantwell-Ensign” clean energy provisions that the Senate made part of their comprehensive housing bill in early April (see ‘News from the Hill’ below). House Democratic leadership does not believe:
- that energy provisions should be included in housing legislation
- that energy matters should be part of any future ‘Economic Stimulus’-type legislation
- that bills with tax titles should be passed with no identified source of funding
Unfortunately, those three characteristics well describe the clean energy amendment that Senators Cantwell and Ensign succeeded in attaching to the housing bill. (more…)
April 7, 2008
Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John Ensign (R-NV) have introduced a bipartisan bill—S2821—in an attempt to break the Congressional deadlock over renewable energy tax credits. Their bill, know as the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008, contains much of what we’ve been fighting for over the past year, and needs a total of 61 senators to co-sponsor it, to ensure passage.
The bill is a pared-down version of previous House-originated bills that have failed to find means of financing acceptable to the Senate. It has a price tag of $7 billion, and proposes to:
- extend the investment tax credit for commercial solar power installations for 8 years
- extend the residential solar investment tax credit for one year and remove the current $2000 credit cap
- remove the exemption on utilities for claiming these tax credits
- allow the tax credit to offset alternative minimum tax
- extend incentives for energy efficiency improvements
What’s really vital is for this bill to garner enough co-sponsors in the Senate (61) to insure it against the threat of a filibuster. Could you send an e-mail today to your senator(s)’ office and urge them to get on board?
TAKE ACTION NOW! Go to this link, enter your ZIP code, and send your message.
http://capwiz.com/re-action/go/S2821
And thanks!