A victory for the wind industry: extended tax credits

The U.S. House has approved final passage of the tax bill that includes a one-year extension of the 1603 investment tax credit for developing renewable energy sources such as wind power. Republicans and Democrats came together to pass the bill without any amendments, and the president has signed it.

Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, thanked lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for extending the investment tax credit, which dates to 1992. ”This is a great holiday present for the 85,000 American workers in the wind energy industry, tens of thousands of whom will now be able to get back to work in a sector that has been a bright spot in the recession so far,” Bode said. “Orders will be on the rise for new wind power, and investors will put more capital into the U.S. economy because of what happened in Congress last night. We’re already making 20% of the electricity in Iowa, and have made as much as 25% of the electricity in Texas,” she said. “We hold the lead in building and expanding our U.S. manufacturing base than most other industries. With the industry expansion this extension will incentivize, we’re going to be making a whole lot more affordable, homegrown electric power in the years to come.”

Bode said she is looking forward to working with incoming Speaker John Boehner, a proponent of developing more domestic energy sources, and the rest of the new majority in the House. “The inclusion of renewable energy in the tax bill is a clear indication of strong bipartisan support for the wind industry, which will make more renewable energy than any other technology for decades,” she said.

AWEA www.awea.org

A quick update on bid to cut ethanol tax credits

Ben Geman with thehill.com offers a quick update on Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) bid to cut ethanol tax credits:

Her proposed amendment to the Senate tax package would use some of the savings to offset extension of incentives for manufacturing “clean energy” equipment such as wind turbines and solar panels.

Extension of the manufacturing credit was left on the cutting-room floor when Senate Democratic leaders rolled out the package to extend Bush-era tax cuts last week, disappointing low-carbon energy advocates.

But Feinstein’s plan would add another $1 billion worth of credits to the program that was launched in the 2009 stimulus law. The stimulus provided $2.3 billion in clean energy manufacturing credits, but demand quickly outstripped that cap, leaving many companies out in the cold.

Here’s a statement from Feinstein on her plan:

“I intend to file an amendment to the tax bill today that would lower the ethanol subsidy and tariff to 36 cents-per-gallon.

“Currently, the federal government intervenes in the ethanol industry in three ways: requiring ethanol be blended in gasoline, providing a substantial subsidy and slapping tariffs on foreign ethanol imports, making us more dependent on foreign oil. This is bad policy and must be fixed.

“This amendment would reduce the tax credit from 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit to 36 cents-per-gallon, reduce the 10-cent-per-gallon small producer tax credit to 8-cents-per-gallon, and reduce the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol to 36-cents-per-gallon. Taxpayer savings of approximately $2 billion would be used to reduce the deficit and extend the Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit.”

Obama Gives $2.3B In Tax Credits to Solar & Wind Energy

President Barack Obama last week announced the award of US $2.3 billion in Recovery Act Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits. One hundred eighty three projects in 43 states will receive that funds that are meant to help create tens of thousands of jobs through the domestic manufacturing of advanced clean energy technologies including solar, wind and efficiency and energy management technologies.

While projects selected for this tax credit generally must be placed in service by 2014, approximately 30 percent of them will be completed in 2010.