Kerry seeks fresh Senate focus on renewable energy incentives
Work on a comprehensive Senate energy bill may have ground to a halt for the summer, but that hasn’t stopped Massachusetts Senator John Kerry putting forward another set of proposals for clean energy.
This time, the Senator’s bill puts renewable energy center stage, along with energy storage and electric vehicles.
His proposals include $3.5 billion worth of clean energy bonds to support new infrastructure projects, as well as measures to expand tax credit programs for manufacturers, solar energy projects, energy storage systems and electric vehicle batteries.
Research and development tax credits would be made available for 2010 through to 2012.
Tax incentives for energy efficiency building improvements are also within the Clean Energy Technology Leadership Act of 2010, as the bill is called.
And, Senator Kerry wants to resume the biodiesel tax credits that ran out at the end of 2009, applying them retroactively back to the start of 2010, to run through to 2012.
The bill would also open tax credits designated for cellulosic biofuels up to developers of algal biofuels.
Essential
Senator Kerry said on Friday that while comprehensive energy legislation was still on the table, it was “essential” to “start moving in the right direction”.
He said: “Providing incentives for clean energy production will drive our economy forward and take us one step closer to reducing our carbon emissions and ending our dependence on foreign oil.”
Having described Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill set out at the end of last month “narrow” and “limited”, Senator Kerry’s bill includes some of the renewable energy thrust that was absent.
The Massachusetts Senator is hopeful that some of his proposals will form part of a renewed attempt at more “comprehensive” energy legislation this fall.
-James Cartlege
