Today, the Senate took up two energy-related tax measures, both of which failed to receive the 60 votes needed to proceed to debate on the underlying bills. The first bill, S. 3044, the Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008, was aimed at addressing increased oil and gasoline prices, by imposing a "windfall profit" tax on major oil companies, among other things. The cloture motion failed by a vote of 51-43.
The second bill, H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008, passed the House on May 21 by a vote of 263-160, was further modified and brought to the Senate this morning. H.R. 6049 would have extended various tax incentives for clean energy development, individuals, and businesses. The Senate voted 50-44 on the cloture motion, effectively killing the bill in the Senate - at least for now.
To review a summary of the Senate version of H.R.6049, click on the following link http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2008press/prb061008.pdf
The Senate vote on H.R. 6049 broke largely along party lines, with the exception of Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Bob Corker (R-TN). Opposition focused on the "offsets" included in the bill, which Ranking Finance Committee Member Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) characterized as "tax increases."
The energy tax incentives of interest in the Senate version of H.R. 6049 were almost identical to those in the House-passed bill, except that the Senate bill would have extended the Investment Tax Credit for solar and fuel cells and the tax credit for residential energy efficient property for eight, instead of six years.
The $2 billion extension of the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) and technical fixes in both bills were identical.
It is unclear at this time what will happen in the remaining days of the 110th Congress on the extenders bill. Chairman Baucus said he would like to try again in the next 7-10 days to bring the bill back up for consideration, but it remains to be seen if the Republican's will engage in bi-partisan discussions to get this done. It is also possible that the energy extenders bill will not be advanced again until after the November elections, during the expected lame-duck session.