While the mainstream press only seems to pay attention to the debate about offshore drilling, there is a very serious energy issue that Congress has so far been unable to act on.

The current credits for the development of solar and wind power expire this December, and so far eight different bills which included their renewal have been killed in Congress.  Many wind and solar projects are unable to get further bank financing until this issue is resolved.  John McCain has filed to bother to vote on any of those bills in the Senate, and Barack Obama voted against the most recent one as he did not like other things bundled into the bill.

The funding of research and development into commercial applications of solar and wind power is much too important to let it get “bundled” with other items.  Renewing these tax credits needs to be done as soon as Congress goes back into session, and should not be held hostage to the debate over offshore drilling or whether or not to release oil from strategic reserves.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 5:48 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.