With billions of dollars of solar and wind power projects and thousands of green-collar jobs hanging in the balance, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday again failed to extend a key investment tax credit for renewable energy.
Republicans blocked the legislation from coming to the floor, marking the eighth attempt to extend the 30 percent tax credit beyond it’s Jan. 1, 2009, expiration date. The extension is backed by all the state governors save Georgia, a coalition of Fortune 500 companies, Wall Street banks, renewable energy startups, and tech giants like Google (GOOG), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Applied Materials (AMAT).
Utilities like PG&E (PCG) and Edison International (EIX) as well as financiers such as Morgan Stanley (MS) and GE Energy Financial Services (GE), are pushing for an eight-year extension of the investment tax credit to give Big Solar projects enough time to get off the ground and start to achieve economies of scale.
Senate Republicans opposed the legislation, contending it would raise taxes. A list of senators and their votes on the legislation can be found here.
Without the 30 percent tax credit, the viability of several large solar power plant projects remains in doubt. Spanish solar company Abengoa Solar has said it probably will pull out of plans to build a 280-megawatt power plant in Arizona if Congress doesn’t renew the tax credit. Green Wombat happened to have breakfast this morning with a PG&E executive who said that the large solar projects that California utilities are counting on to meet renewable energy mandates would have a hard time securing financing absent the investment tax credit.
First Solar (FSLR) CEO Michael Ahearn said on an earnings call Wednesday afternoon that if the investment tax credit is not extended the thin-film solar module maker would focus its efforts on the European market. “We don’t have massive volumes of solar planned for the U.S. in the short term,” said Ahearn.
Said Rhone Resch, president of the trade group Solar Energy Industries Association, in a statement: “Already companies are putting projects on hold and preparing to send thousands of jobs overseas – real jobs that would otherwise be filled by American workers.”
While Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have have expressed support for increasing the U.S.’s investment in green energy, neither presidential candidate showed up to vote Wednesday on the extension of the tax credit.
