Tax Credits to Become Evergreen?
According to Craig Rubens at Earth2Tech and other reports, the House this week unveiled a bill that will renew the renewable energy tax breaks for consumers and businesses. This was necessitated when Congress could not get the credits into the fuel economy measure passed in Q4 2007. Senate Democrats at the time had too narrow a margin to get both measures passed in the same bill and alluded to the possibility that the tax credits could be revisited in early 2008.
This is huge news as the credits help offset the cost of implementing solar, wind and other renewable technologies. The more quickly economic incentives increase, the quicker we will be out of early adopter phase in the market. This will help cleantechs grow more quickly and result in better education of the marketplace. It also will help encourage continued investment in renewables by VCs and Wall Street, which will help preserve the marketing budgets of cleantech companies.
As mentioned in previous posts, federal incentives make the most sense because they encourage nationwide adoption. The states and municipalities can still add on top, but the move to cleantech should be a national effort. There are some holes in the legislation as pointed out by Rubens, but overall it is a great step in supporting continued market growth.
Tags: cleantech, renewable energy, renewables, solar, tax credits, wind
Posted by Jason Morris on February 14, 2008 at 6:00 PM
