Solar Investment Tax Credit Bill Introduced by Senate Finance Committee

Published by sylvia | Filed under Uncategorized

We at 1 Block Off the Grid are pleased to see movement on renewing the solar investment tax credit. This program has been instrumental in driving and accelerating solar to date. Combining the Federal, state and local solar incentives with the purchasing power of 1 Block Off the Grid makes solar more accessible. Please call your senator to support this bill. Learn more about how 1 Block Off the Grid works.

Senator Baucus, Chair of the Finance Committee, and Senator Reid, Majority Leader, have introduced a Senate version of the storied clean energy investment tax credit bill. It’s S3335, the Jobs, Energy, Families and Disaster Relief Act of 2008.* It contains the extensions to clean energy investment tax credits (ITC) that we’ve been promoting for so long, and it could come up for a vote as early as Tuesday July 29th.

What’s different this time, that might lead to a bill actually making it through both chambers? Well, on this occasion the document is coming from the Senate with funding provisions attached–the very issue that senators have objected to, for over a year now. This means that a lot of bipartisan shaping of the bill has been going on, to either remove provisions that senators disliked or add provisions that would switch their votes to ‘yea’ (such as tax relief for those affected by natural disasters this year). But most importantly to the House, it ensures that the clean energy tax credits can be paid for without adding to the deficit. And it means that:

• commercial and residential solar 30% ITCs will be extended for 8 years
• the residential cap on the ITC will be doubled to $4000
• corporate and individual taxpayers can claim the ITC against the AMT
• investor-owned utilities can claim the ITC directly

It sounds like there’s a good faith effort, this time, to provide sufficient ‘feel-good’ measures all around to put the dreaded filibuster to bed. We sure hope so. But to make sure, can you hit your senators one more time with an e-mail, reminding them how important this bill is to the future of solar power in America?

Following this link: Solar Nation

Enter your ZIP code and press GO to TAKE ACTION!

*For parliamentary junkies, this replaces HR6049, which was the House-originated vehicle. Assuming it passes, the language will be folded back into HR6049 for the president’s signature, because all bills containing revenue-raising measures must originate in the House.

source: Solar Nation