Josh Dorner has an excellent post up on Gristmill about the alternative stimulus package that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus is championing, which includes the tax incentives for clean energy and renewables that got cut out of the energy bill in December. The package, which would provide $5.7 billion in tax incentives for green energy, passed mark-up in the Senate Finance Committee last week with the backing of key Republican leaders like Pete Domenici and Chuck Grassley. It includes a one-year extension of the Production Tax Credit; $130 million in solar, fuel cell, and microturbine investment credits; $400 million for Clean Renewable Energy Bonds; and credits for high-efficiency appliances, energy efficient new homes and commercial buildings, and retrofits of older homes. Including these green measures in the stimulus plan is a sensible option -- not because it necessarily helps the wider economy in the short term, but because it builds up a sector that will be important in the long term.
Of course, there's opposition from a number of Republicans, some folks who wonder why we should target only one industry for these credits, and others who just don't think this green stuff belongs in a stimulus package. But why shouldn't it? We've no choice but to move to a green economy, and stimulating that sector now is beneficial down the line. Plus, we're not getting it through other means, as the energy bill fight demonstrated, and Bush would probably actually sign off on them under this premise. The Los Angeles Times has more on the green stimulus package today as well, as does David Roberts. It goes to a vote tomorrow, so we'll have to see how the green incentives hold up.
--Kate Sheppard
