bizjournals.com
Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - 8:03 AM
Solar tax credits still stuck in DC impasse
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - by Linday Riddell
The solar investment tax credit will not be extended on Monday, killing the last best hope for the extension to be renewed before the November presidential election, the Solar Energy Industries Association said.
In a letter to its membership, SEIA president Rhone Resch said the U.S. House of Representatives would not take up the measure before it adjourned Monday.
“While we are extremely disappointed with the failure of the House leadership to secure an agreement among themselves or with the Senate with respect to passage of the ITC, we remain hopeful that there is path forward later this year,” Resch said.
The letter laid out several scenarios of how the solar tax credit still could get passed before the November presidential election.
But Resch said all were unlikely given they require either the Senate or the House to compromise on how to fund the extension — an issue that has led to the demise of each of five previous attempts to pass an extension.
Resch indicated higher hopes for a post-election extension.
“The hope and expectation is that the environment for compromise will dramatically improve after the election season ends and they (Congress) will return to complete legislation during the week of November 17th,” Resch said.
The Bush administration has derailed several versions of a solar tax credit extension using veto threats because legislators relied on the closing of tax loopholes and taking credits away from oil and gas companies to pay for them. But SEIA blamed “Blue Dog Democrats” insistence that the tax credits be fully funded for the legislation’s failure.
The current versions of both the House and U.S. Senate extension legislation offered an 8-year extension of a 30 percent investment tax credit for solar, and other credits for varying types of renewable energy.
The solar industry has been pushing for the extension of the tax credits, which are set to expire Dec. 31, saying a long-term extension is crucial to the industry’s ability to achieve scale and cost-parity with the fossil fuels industry.
While SolarCity Corp., a large solar panel installer based in Foster City has a plan that will help it outlast any lag in tax credit legislations, its CEO Lyndon Rive said the tax credit is crucial to growing the industry and creating jobs.
“It’s embarrassing to see it not even extended right now,” Rive said. “This is something that could create tens of thousands of jobs. The financial industry has collapsed, the construction industry has collapsed. The housing industry has collapsed. And solar is still growing. This will cause it to collapse … And if political leaders can’t see this, I can’t understand what they’re thinking.” |
