Isra-Mart srl : Senators launch bipartisan effort to deliver clean energy tax breaks

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A raft of tax breaks for US clean energy projects could still be approved before the end of the year after senators launched the second bipartisan push in as many weeks designed to provide a boost to the renewable energy industry.

Democrat senator and chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Jeff Bingaman teamed up with Republican senator Olympia J Snowe on Friday to introduce a package of advanced energy tax incentives for a wide range of low-carbon projects.

The senators called on their colleagues to pass the bill, dubbed the Advanced Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2010 (S. 3935), before Congress adjourns in December, potentially during the lame duck session following November's mid-term elections.

"We must continue to ensure that the Tax Code contains well-designed incentives that will help us transition to an energy efficient economy," explained Bingaman in a statement. "Our bill will significantly expand domestic clean energy manufacturing; help American businesses and families reduce their energy use and dependence on fossil fuels; and creating thousands of jobs. This is a common-sense, bipartisan proposal that deserves priority consideration."

His comments were echoed by Snowe who urged her fellow Republicans to overcome their scepticism about low-carbon energy sources and back a bill that would help revitalise the US energy sector and enhance the country's economic competitiveness.

"For far too long our country's energy strategy has prioritised the technologies of the past while our policy debate has languished in partisanship, " she said. "The world is moving ahead with bold action on innovative technologies and it is past time that we set a new course for how we use and think about energy."

In particular, she highlighted how the tax credits contained in the bill would help to accelerate the rollout of energy efficiency projects.

The bill incorporates a wide range of new tax breaks, including performance-based tax credits for domestic energy efficiency improvements, $2.5bn (£1.6bn) of tax credits to help attract manufacturers of renewable energy or energy efficiency technologies, a $1bn tax credit programme to help US manufacturers deploy energy-saving measures, and new tax credits for energy storage systems and carbon capture and storage projects.

The launch of the new bill comes hot on the heels of a separate bipartisan bill also launched by Senator Bingaman, this time alongside Republican Sam Brownback, which would require energy firms to source 15 per cent of their energy from renewable sources by 2021.

The new bills represent a shift in the US government's approach to climate change legislation after the Senate defeated proposals for a comprehensive climate change bill this summer and President Obama signaled that instead he would pursue environmental legislation "in chunks".