Tucson lawmaker calls solar "one of our nation's best hopes for a clean, secure and sustainable energy future"
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is urging her Arizona colleagues in the Senate, John McCain and Jon Kyl, to support extending the solar investment tax credit for eight years.
"The clock is ticking," said Giffords, a member of the House Science and Technology Committee. "Congress simply cannot adjourn without extending these vital tax credits. The House will vote on the credits today when it considers the Comprehensive American Energy Security & Consumer Protection Act. The Senate must do its part to make the credits the law of the land."
In a letter to McCain and Kyl, Giffords writes that "solar power represents one of our nation's best hopes for a clean, secure and sustainable energy future. A strong solar industry creates jobs and economic growth, increases American energy independence, and reduces threats to the natural environment associated with the combustion of fossil fuels."
Referring to the lawmakers' home state as "the sunniest state in the Union," Giffords writes that no state "stands to benefit more from a robust domestic solar industry than Arizona."
Giffords, one of the most passionate champions of solar energy in the House, also wrote a letter on the importance of extending the solar investment tax credits to Republican and Democratic Senate leaders.
Known as the ITC, the investment tax credits are available to homeowners and businesses that invest in solar power equipment. Among the recipients would be the Arizona utility APS, which has proposed building the largest solar plant in the world 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. The $1 billion plant would provide power to about 70,000 homes but it will not be built without extension of the tax credits.
The House is expected to pass the Comprehensive American Energy Security & Consumer Protection Act later today. Thanks largely to Giffords' persistence, the bill includes extension of the solar investment tax credits for eight years. Without congressional action, the tax credit is scheduled to expire at the end of 2008.
Extension of the tax credits has previously passed the House on four separate occasions. It failed to pass the Senate by one vote in December 2007, a vote for which McCain was absent.
"At a time when our country and our state need the economic, security and environmental benefits of solar power more than ever, failure to extend the solar ITC is simply unacceptable," Giffords wrote in her letter to McCain and Kyl. "This moment represents a tremendous opportunity to take bold action and invest in a solar powered future."