On April 17, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced a $55 billion, tax "extenders" bill, which provides one-year extensions for a broad range of tax incentives that have expired or are set to expire soon. Included in the bill of interest to NEPPA is a one-year extension (through 2009) of the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs), with $400 million in new authority. It does not include the technical fixes public power is seeking. Also of interest in the bill is a one year extension of the Production Tax Credit for private developers of renewables and of the Investment Tax Credit for private developers of solar energy, among other things.
Although Baucus and Grassley are working to find offsets, the tax "extenders" bill is not yet "paid for" by cuts in other spending areas. Without offsets, the measure will likely hit a roadblock in the House, which is governed by the "pay-as-you-go" rules. Earlier this month, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John Ensign (R-NV) were successful in attaching a $6 billion package of the renewable energy tax incentives to a housing measure, but it is not expected to survive a House-Senate conference, as it is not paid for either.
Often, Congress passes an "extenders" bill during the fall, "lame-duck" session, when all other efforts have failed.