Nag Congress Now on Renewable Energy Credits
Amid the distractions of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Sarah Palin surprises, Hurricane Gustav and beyond sits a vitally important and sadly too-neglected news item: investments in new projects for renewable energy are suffering because Congress hasn’t yet found a way to extend tax credits for such efforts.
The renewable energy tax credits for wind, solar and other clean energies is set to expire on Dec. 31.
The delay in extending those credits is hindering plans for new renewable energy projects. A study by Navigant Consulting, for example, warns that letting the tax credits expire could jeopardize $19 billion in renewables investment, as well as threaten 112,000 jobs in the clean-energy sector.
The sector has taken similar hits in the past. Denis Hayes, chairman of the board of trustees of the American Solar Energy Society, notes that investments in projects for wind energy alone dropped between 70 and 93 percent when the tax credits were allowed to expire in 1999, 2001 and 2003.
“In any sane world, our Congress would be able to simply extend for 10 years the existing tax credits for energy sources that produce no greenhouse gases, no bomb-grade materials, no toxic wastes, no negative balance of trade,” Hayes writes in a commentary at Yale Environment 360. “But the last year has shown sanity to be impossible in our dueling democracy.”
Hayes says the best short-term bet for getting the ball rolling again on renewable energy investment is a proposal for a one-year extension of the tax credits, backed by U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D, Washington) and John Ensign (R, Nevada). So now’s the time to nag your elected officials to get moving. Find contact information for your senators and representatives here and here.
