Senate Strips House Energy Bill of Renewables Incentives

Date: December 18, 2007

Source: News Room

The Senate dealt a blow to the waste industry with its revisions of a comprehensive energy bill recently passed by the House of Representatives by stripping the bill of its tax package and 15% renewable portfolio standard (RPS). The tax package had included a long-term extension of the investment tax credit and a short-term extension of the production tax credit, which developers of solar, wind, waste and other renewable energy projects regard as even more critical than the RPS to encouraging future project development. However, the House measure faced the threat of a veto by President George Bush and objections by Senate Republicans since the $21.8 billion tax package would be funded by eliminating tax breaks for the oil industry.

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