Tucson lawmaker says Congress has not done enough to promote renewable energy
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is pushing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to waste no time in moving forward with legislation to extend and expand solar tax credits.
"Experts in the solar industry have indicated that Congress must take action to extend these tax provisions during the first three months of 2008, or we risk a significant contraction in this industry," the Tucson lawmaker writes in a letter sent today to the Speaker. "In this time of rising concerns about global warming, the economic downturn, and our nation's dependence on foreign oil, we simply cannot afford such a setback."
Giffords introduced solar tax credit legislation in 2007. Pelosi and other House leaders are debating whether to bring this legislation to the floor as early as this week.
In her letter Giffords reminds Pelosi that the House has twice passed solar tax credit legislation, but it was not included in the final version of the energy bill approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Bush last December.
"I believe we cannot rest until these vital measures are signed into law," Giffords, a member of the House Science and Technology Committee, writes.
Extension and expansion of solar tax credit legislation was a top priority of Giffords' Solar Energy Advisory Council, a group of private- and public-sector experts assisting the congresswoman in developing strategies to promote solar energy. In "Solar Energy in Southern Arizona," its 68-page report to Giffords, the council called for extending solar energy investment tax credits for homeowners and businesses through 2016. The report notes that "investors need to know these tax credits will be in place for a sufficient period of time to allow for growth of new businesses."
Giffords' effort is being praised by solar industry experts. "A minimum 8-year extension and enhancement of the investment tax credit for solar energy systems will stimulate manufacturing investment creating more efficient markets that drive down the cost of solar energy to be at parity with conventional energy sources," said Ardeth Barnhart, associate director of the Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy at the University of Arizona. "Congresswoman Giffords' continued leadership and support of the investment tax credit will help more Americans in urban and rural communities use solar energy in their homes and businesses, providing them increased security against rising energy prices and the impacts of global warming."
Valerie Rauluk, CEO of Venture Catalyst Inc., agreed. "Critical to capturing Arizona's share of the multi-billion dollar investment in solar energy is an extension of the federal investment tax credit," she said. "This will deliver a full investment cycle to the state, and bring clean, high paying jobs and increased income to our communities."
Tom Alston, manager of business and policy development at American Solar Electric, Inc., said the stakes are high. "If the solar investment tax credit is not passed, by April 1, you will see nearly all plans for new commercial scale solar facilities in the United States put on hold until it passes - or canceled outright if it does not," he said. "Some companies have already begun to shift their resources away from the U.S., instead focusing on the European and Japanese markets."
Click here for a copy of Giffords' letter to Pelosi. The "Solar Energy in Southern Arizona" report can be accessed by clicking on the sun at the congresswoman's website, http://www.giffords.house.gov/.