9-25-08 by dugan
The House was supposed to take up a Senate tax bill today that would, among other things, extend a crucial renewable energy tax credit that will otherwise expire at the end of the year. But in today’s chaos in Washington, the renewable energy credits got lost–shoved into a separate bill that might or might not pass, and probably won’t get Senate re-approval before it’s too late for this year.
The House managed to pass part of the Senate package on relieving the middle classed of the loathed Alternative Minimum Tax, but couldn’t see its way to approving the tax credit–despite the pleas of 50 governors, most of the corporate community and major environmental groups. However, the Senate version would have taken away some oil industry tax credits to pay for more wind and solar, so guess who opposed it. Losing the investment credits would be a huge setback for wind and solar power. The end of this Congressional session can’t come soon enough…