Regardless of how one views the bailout, there was a major piece of good news for the climate - the passage with the bill signed today of the renewable energy incentives long-stalled in Congress.
AP reports.
The renewable energy incentives include an eight-year extension of investment credits for solar energy, as well as breaks for wind, geothermal and other alternative sources. The solar industry says extension of the credits through 2016 would produce an extra 440,000 jobs and more than $230 billion in investments.
Failure to have enacted the renewal - this time for 8 years instead of just 2 - would have been catastrophic for the solar and wind industries which have long struggled with the boom and bust of federal incentives, something which has never plagued the fossil fuel industry with its billions in incentives. These incentives are all the more important now given the disruption of the financial markets which is making financing hard to find. This will likely result in consolidation in the industry - not necessarily a bad thing. The Oil Drum offers a fascinating discussion of the impact of the credit crisis on the energy industry.
However, the bill also contained serious bad news for the climate. The bailout bill was loaded up with a raft of unrelated measures, also contained massive subsidies for the worst fossil fuel options:
- Section 112: Expansion and Modification of Coal Gasification Investment Credit. Scored at $389 million for 2009 and $1.402 billion for FYs 2009-2013.
- Section 204: Extension and Modification of Alternative Fuel Credit. Scored at $61 million for FYs 2009-2013. (liquid coal)
- Section 209: Extension and Modification of Election to Expense Certain Refineries. Scored at $72 million for 2009 and $2.069 billion for FYs 2009-2013 (liquid fuel from tar and shale oil)
These are
very bad.
We can hope to challenge these after the election. However, Joe Biden's vigorous promotion of "clean coal" in yesterday's debate (not to mention Obama's in his nomination) are worrisome. An Obama administration is clearly the dramatically better option - but we should anticipate many challenges ahead after January 20th.