Energy Tax Extenders Become Law in
Economic Rescue Package
On October 3, by a vote of 263-171, the House
passed HR 1424, the Emergency Economic
Stabilization Act of 2008, a bill that provides $700 billion to rescue the
financial markets, which the Senate passed 74-25 on October 1. The House had
defeated a slightly different version earlier that week. To attract more
support, the Senate added $108 billion in tax breaks, increased the limit on
FDIC-insured bank deposits to $250,000 from $100,000, and added a "patch" for
the Alternative Minimum Tax. It then passed
the revised bill and sent it back to the House for approval. The
President signed the bill into law on Friday, October 3.
Among the provisions included in the measure is
a $17 billion energy tax incentives package, which includes:
-
A
one-year extension of the existing Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREB) program,
and authorization for $800 million of new CREB bonding authority, with public
power-supported technical fixes for the program;
-
An
eight-year extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar and fuel cell
property;
-
A
one-year extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind and two-year
extension for other qualifying renewable facilities;
-
A
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Drive Vehicle (PHEV) credit
for individuals;
-
Energy
efficiency deductions for commercial buildings; new credits for energy
efficient homes, and upgrades to existing homes (including the addition of a
$300 credit for energy-efficient biomass
fuel stoves).
Passage of the energy extenders package -
particularly with the preferred CREBs provisions - comes as a victory for NEPPA
and others who have worked over the last year or so for Congress to act on it.
To see how your Senator voted, click on: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00213
To see how your Representative voted, click on: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll681.xml
Congress Adjourns to Campaign for Elections
Congress
adjourned on October 3, after completing work on the economic rescue bill. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene for a
post-election, lame duck session on November 17 and to organize for the 111th
Congress. The House is currently scheduled
to return on January 3, 2009, although there is
speculation they may return in November, as well.
Dingell and Boucher Release Climate Change Draft
Today,
(10/7) House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and
Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) released a
"discussion draft" of legislation to establish an economy-wide, cap-and-trade
program to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). In a memorandum to Committee Members, Dingell
and Boucher said that their "goal is to craft a bill that can be enacted
quickly and lead to regulations that can be implemented with a minimum of
administrative or legal impediments.
Achieving that goal will require us to assemble a bipartisan coalition
that bridges legitimate policy disagreements rooted in regional economics and
other factors that cross party lines."
The
discussion draft includes specific statutory language on some issues and
options for action in other areas. Highlights
include:
-A timetable that would
require reductions in emissions of GHG to six percent below 2005 levels by
2020; 44 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and 80 percent below 2005
levels in 2005. The authors say
this phased approach will allow the economy to adjust to new prices for carbon
in early years and become more stringent in the years when they anticipate
carbon capture and sequestration technologies to be available for wide
deployment;
-Four options for
allocating allowances, including: 1) minimizing costs to regulated entities
by allocating allowances at no charge, as in the 1990 acid rain program;
2) allocating fewer allowances to regulated entities and more to
"complementary" programs that would also help reduce GHG emissions, as in
the Lieberman-Warner bill; 3) directing allowance value to "adaptation"
programs and international GHG programs; or 4) use the majority of
allowance value for rebates to consumers.
All four options include support for energy efficiency and clean
technology initiatives and low-income customer assistance, primarily
through allowance allocations;
-Cost
management features that would allow regulated entities to bank and borrow
allowances; access to a "strategic reserve" of allowances that would be
auctioned if allowance prices reach a predetermined level; and purchase
EPA-approved domestic and international offsets to comply with the new GHG
limits, from five percent of the compliance obligation in early years,
growing to 35 percent by 2024; and
-Carbon
market oversight, including prevention of fraud and market manipulation,
which will reside with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
There will
be not be action on the discussion draft in this Congress, but rather, its
intent is to lay the framework for debate next year.
The text
of the Dingell-Boucher Discussion Draft, Executive Summary of Discussion Draft,
Memorandum to Committee Members and Chart of Draft allocation options are
available on the House Energy and Commerce Committee web site: http://energycommerce.house.gov/.