This week, for the third time in two years, the House will vote on a bill to extend renewable energy and energy efficiency tax credits due to expire at the end of this year. That is good news. The Senate has already voted 88-8 to do so. That is great news. However, The Hill newspaper Energy Tip Sheet predicts this latest House bill?s “future in the Senate might not be any brighter than previous efforts,” both rejected because the House bills contained tax increases unacceptable to the Senate. That is the bad news. Worse news is that there have already been negative economic consequences for Marylanders as a result of this ongoing political stalemate.
You might think that with oil over $125 per barrel and gasoline fast approaching $4 a gallon, it?s a no-brainer that these tax credits forclean, renewable domestic energy production would be extended. You would be wrong. A few weeks ago, I got mad after reading a column by New York Times columnist Tom Friedman titled “Dumb as We Wanna Be.” He recounted that “for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy.”
I soon discovered that Democratic Maryland Sen. Benjamin Cardin is one of 43 bipartisan co-sponsors of a bill, S. 2821, which would extend these tax credits. This is the legislation that the Senate approved on an 88-8 vote. I checked, but there was no House version of the bill, so I introduced it. H.R. 5984 is also bipartisan and is currently supported by more than 45 House members, including Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-District 1. I hope you agree that?s good news.
The bad news is that this is not the bill the House will vote on next week. A summary of that bill is on the House Ways and Means Committee Web site. Then again, if the bill the House majority will approve is destined to go nowhere fast because more than 40 senators can block it, who cares about the details? This might be funny if it wasn?t so sad.
Solar power has grown annually an average of 18 percent with the federal credit; it grew 57 percent alone in 2007. Why dim this bright spot in our shaky economy? An independent study by Navigant found that nationally, “112,000 jobs in the wind and solar industries (78,000 wind, 34,000 solar) and $19 billion in investment” are at risk over the next six to eight months if the renewable energy tax credits are allowed to expire.
What?s worse, Marylanders will be disproportionally hurt if these tax credits expire. Thanks to new laws in the last two years, Maryland has created a framework to create a world-class market for solar power. New state incentives for businesses and homeowners to invest in energy efficiency and install solar power have been projected to produce electricity equivalent to three conventional fossil fuel plants or one Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant by 2022. These renewable energy-friendly state policies would be severely undermined if the federal tax credits expire.
Maryland companies and Maryland workers are already being hurt by the ongoing stalemate for two reasons. First, because Maryland is home to some of the nation?s leading solar power companies. Second, major potential projects that cannot be completed this year and are contingent upon continuation of the federal tax credit are already on hold.
BP Solar?s facility in Frederick is the largest fully integrated solar manufacturing plant in the United States. SunEdison headquartered in Beltsville is America?s largest solar energy service provider. Smaller companies, such as Standard Solar in Gaithersburg and Chesapeake Solar in Jessup, are also affected.
Maintaining consistent federal incentives for renewable energy policy will free up American businesses and workers to do what they do better than anyone in the world: innovate. That will result in American rather than German, Japanese or Chinese ownership of intellectual property and emissions-free electricity. More domestic production of energy will also reduce reliance upon foreign energy sources. House members could compromise and support H.R. 5984, which has already been approved 88-8 by the Senate. Shouldn?t that be a no-brainer?
Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett is a Republican representing Maryland?s 6th District.
