"Tax Credits For Clean Energy Or A Billion To Georgia?"

Congress is putting the short-term future of renewable energy companies in jeopardy even as the presidential candidates and most lawmakers hail windmills, solar panels and biofuels as long-term solutions to high gasoline prices and global warming.

Some $500 million in investment and production tax credits will expire Dec. 31 unless Congress renews them. Without that help, solar and wind power companies say they will reverse planned expansions and, in many cases, cut payrolls and capital investment.

Schott Solar has visions of quadrupling its operation in Albuquerque, N.M., to reach 1,500 jobs and $500 million in investment. But the investment tax credit, company spokesman Brian Lynch said, is what makes solar power cost-competitive. Without it, expansion plans must be reconsidered.

"We don't want to build a giant factory that the market doesn't need or want," Lynch said.

The Solar Energy Industries Association says some 20 utility-scale solar power plants, many in California and together capable of producing power for a million homes, are at risk because of the uncertainty in Congress.

Proponents of wind power, a nascent industry that relies on skittish investors, are in a similar predicament. Greg Wetstone of the American Wind Energy Association says his group is predicting a loss of 76,000 jobs and $11.4 billion in investment if Congress allows its production tax credit to expire.

"Investors like to know what tax policies apply when they are putting millions of dollars down on a project. There's a pretty clear history that these projects are less likely to go forward without a credit," he said.

Congress let the credit expire in 2000, 2002 and 2004. In those three years, wind capacity installation dropped 93 percent, 73 percent and 77 percent, respectively, from the previous year.

Navigant Consulting, which advises on renewable energy technology, estimated that investments in wind and solar power in 2009 would amount to $26.6 billion with the credits; that would fall to $7 billion without them.

The credits are expected to total $334 million, according to congressional estimates.

"These companies are shutting down projects, firing people and it's Congress's fault," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The biggest concern for high-tech companies and manufacturers is the research and development credit, which expired at the end of last year. Some 17,700 corporations claimed $6.6 billion in credits in 2005, according to a recent study by Ernst & Young LLP. About 70 percent of that went to pay wages of scientists and engineers.

The credit has been allowed to expire 13 times since it was adopted in 1981. One repercussion, said Monica McGuire, executive secretary of the R&D Credit Coalition, is that more companies are taking their research dollars overseas.

"It's a global race for R&D dollars," she said, and the odds are not good when at least 20 developed nations offer tax incentives and the United States currently has nothing.

Fresh off a trip to the Republic of Georgia, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden said he will ask for $1 billion in emergency aid for the war torn country.

“When Congress reconvenes, I intend to work with the administration to seek Congressional approval for $1 billion in emergency assistance for Georgia, with a substantial down payment on that aid to be included in the Congress' next supplemental spending bill.”

Biden said the $1 billion would "help the people of Georgia to rebuild their country and preserve its democratic institutions."

    When Congress reconvenes it should be interesting to see what the priorities will be, extending the much needed tax credits for the development and research necessary to get wind and solar energy going or to send the billion dollars that Democratic Vice President candidate Joe Biden wants to send to prop up the puppet President of Georgia. (John McCain will be backing that proposal as well since he asserts "we are all Georgians") In my opinion, America cannot afford to extend the clean energy tax credits and send a billion dollars to a foreign country in East Europe. Georgia can turn to the nations in the Eastern Europe region for aid, including Russia. With the Gross National Debt approaching ten trillion dollars, America has no money to waste. This would be a no brainer for a Libertarian President because non-interventionism in foreign affairs is a foundational plank in the Libertarian Party platform. Let us pray that Congress will put America's vital interests ahead of some oil pipe line in a puppet democracy in East Europe.

tags: congress  joe biden  georgia  tax credits  clean energy  politics  takebackamerica  us  america  energy crisis  wind energy  solar energy  

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