Urge Your Senator to Extend the Investment Tax Credit

What you can do:

We are asking everyone to call their Senators and urge them to extend the solar investment tax credit to 8 years and eliminate the $2000 cap on residential solar. You should also voice your overall support for HR6049, the Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008.

Please call the Chief-of-Staff as soon as possible and make the following points:

· According to Navigant Consulting, 116,000 jobs and $20 billion in capital investment are at stake in 2009 alone.

· Not extending the solar credits is an enormous tax increase that will cost American jobs.

· The clean energy tax incentives play a vital role in creating new high-wage American jobs, spurring economic growth, promoting consumer purchases of energy efficient products, lowering energy bills for consumers and businesses, and of course reducing global warming pollution. The incentives also help the U.S. catch up with other countries on the development and deployment of clean energy technologies.

· It is outrageous that Congress wants to spend $110 billion on energy security in Iraq, but won’t spend a dime on energy security in the United States.

· The extension of the ITC recently passed the Senate in the Cantwell-Ensign Amendment by a vote of 88-8.

Arguments for extending the Commercial ITC for 8-years (as opposed to 6):

· An 8-year extension of the ITC encourages development and deployment of numerous solar energy technologies. For CSP, a shorter-term extension dictates that only solar technologies that currently have signed utility contracts will benefit.

· The utility-scale solar industry is in an emerging stage, marked by tremendous innovation, competition and creativity. An 8-year extension of the ITC is necessary to establish solar energy’s competitiveness with fossil fuel generation.

· An 8-year extension of the ITC allows the solar industry to be a large part of federal renewable electricity standards and climate policies.

· A 2006 study by the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) found that utility-scale CSP plants have the potential to begin competing directly with conventional power technologies by 2015 if the current 30% income tax credit is extended through that time frame.

Arguments for total elimination of the $ cap on the Residential ITC (as opposed to doubling to $4,000)

· The proposed $4000 cap represents only 4%-10% of the actual cost of a residential system and will fail to stimulate market growth.

· The catalytic effect of beneficial tax treatment will not be realized without total elimination of the cap. The residential market growth will be limited to states with generous incentives.

You should also feel free to e-mail your Senators office. To locate your Senators’ Washington phone number, go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt and type in your company’s zip code. Alternatively, you can reach your Senators’ offices through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-225-3121.

Every day that passes without an extension places more American jobs at risk. Already clean energy projects in the U.S. are being put on hold while overseas growth in jobs and the manufacturing of equipment is surging overseas. This is slowing our transition towards energy independence and our ability to remain competitive in the new clean economy that is going to be a huge part of the future.

As early as Thursday morning, the Senate will take up the tax extenders legislation – HR 6049, the Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008.

Senator Reid filed a cloture petition on the motion to proceed to H.R. 6049, the Energy Tax Extenders bill before adjourning this afternoon. Under the rules a vote will occur on Tuesday. The vote will be on proceeding to debate on a substitute amendment to HR 6049.

As of now, the final content of that amendment is still under discussion. The store is open and Chairman Baucus is soliciting suggestions from Republicans in exchange for their support of the underlying measure. NOW IS THE TIME TO GET R’S TO REQUEST ANY CHANGES TO THE MEASURE, (8-year extension, total elimination of the residential monetary cap, etc…) The final version of the bill will be fully paid for. The one exception to this may be an AMT fix that is included in the final version.

New technology for Florida Pool Owners »« Is solar-generated electricity right for you? Yes, if you can afford it.