On May 5, the Northeast Public Power Association joined a large and diverse coalition of interests in sending a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), urging them to do everything possible to "ensure prompt enactment, with significant bipartisan support, of extensions of federal tax incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies." The letter argues that failing to extend the tax incentives puts more than 116,000 jobs at risk in the wind and solar technology sectors as well as more than $19 billion in clean energy investment. NEPPA signed onto the letter with 154 other organizations, including businesses, construction companies, environmental organizations, investors, labor, nongovernmental organizations, states, and trade associations.
On May 7, in a House effort to break the stalemate over whether the extensions must be "paid for" or not, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), along with 33 House Republicans and one Democrat, Joseph Courtney (D-CT) introduced a companion to S. 2821, the bipartisan Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008 (H.R. 5984). Included in H.R. 5984 is a one-year extension of the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds program (through 2009), with an additional authorization for $400 million, split equally among public power utilities, electric coops and other governmental entities. The bill also extends other energy tax incentives, such as the production tax credit (PTC), investment tax credit (ITC) and various energy-efficiency tax incentives, among others.
S. 2821 was introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John Ensign (R-NV), with 43 cosponsors, and was included as an amendment to the housing reform bill last month, which was approved by a vote of 88-8. House leaders stripped the energy tax provisions from the housing bill when it was considered in the House last week.
The question over how and whether to "pay for" expiring energy tax incentives has resulted in a virtual stalemate in Congress. Extending these incentives without any tax increases would be a departure from the "pay-as-you-go" rules that Democrats instituted since becoming the majority party following the 2006 elections. The House Democratic leadership is insistent upon offsets, while Senate Democratic leadership seems to be willing to make an exception and pass a bill that extends popular tax breaks without offsetting the cost through other spending reductions or tax increases.