House Passes Renewable Energy Credits

The House of Representatives today passed a bill to extend tax credits and other incentives for renewable energy. The bill is extending some of the key tax credits for solar energy and wind energy that have been in place fore years and were set to expire at the end of this year. It would be nice to hail this as a major victory for the renewable energy movement but unfortunately the bill is doomed. Bush has already announced he is going to veto the bill because the credits are paid for by eliminating $17 billion in tax incentives that Bush had managed to push through for his cronies prior to 2006 when both the House and Senate were Republican controlled. It is one of those sad but true facts that nothing that threatens Bush and Cheney's oil buddies is ever going to make it into law. We are just going to have to wait them out.

What I find surprising is that most of my friends and colleagues seem surprised that the economy is in shambles and oil prices have shot into the stratosphere. I mean really guys, what did you think was going to happen. We elected two oil barrons from Texas and put them in charge of our country! As my teenage daughter would say ...Duh!

The only silver lining I can see in all of this, and I am sure it is at the heart of the Democratic strategy, is that it will put Bush into a position of having to veto a bill that the American public wants. Its not like it matters to him since he is a lame duck (very lame) but it might remind the electorate the consequence of continuing to put people in office who are supporters of big oil and uncaring about the health of our planet. This is not something that is going to make life easy in the next election for McCaine and the Republicans.

Ya gotta wonder how the Republicans are going to justify their position. I mean, how can you possibly defend keeping tax incentives for the oil companies when they are raking in money so fast they don't know what to do with all of it. For example ExonMobil earned $40.6 billion in profits last year, the biggest profit ever recorded by any company ever and yet they are trying to argue that they need tax credits because otherwise they wouldn't have any incentive to drill for oil! At 110 a barrel just how much incentive do they need! I have a feeling the American public is not going to have a whole lot of sympathy for their position.

The real question here is what is the best next step. One option would be to work out a compromise bill in the Senate but I suspect that will be difficult to do. In fact there's a good chance it will never make it out of the Senate in any form given its potential damage to the Republicans. I suspect the most likely scenario, and probably the most practical given the political situation, is for a new bill to be generated which maintains the renwable energy credits without taking away the oil company's tax breaks. That at least might stand a chance of being signed by Bush and would allow the renewable energy industry to move ahead. Failing that we will just have to hope that the electorate shows a how lot more sense in November than they did 4 years ago.