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[Michael Welch]

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Thanks.

>SEIA Members,
>
>First, many thanks to all of you who called, wrote letters, and met with your Congressional representatives.  We greatly appreciate all of the help, and any continued success will be a reflection of our cohesion and willingness to work and strategize together.
>
>The last 48 hours have been a roller-coaster ride.  After the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committees approved tax packages with strong provisions for the solar ITC (detailed below), we unfortunately suffered a set-back yesterday afternoon on the Senate floor. Shortly after noon, the Senate rejected the "Baucus Amendment" that included all energy tax provisions, including the solar ITC extension.  The tax provisions were rejected due to controversy over the revenue raisers or "pay-fors" in the bill.  Under current rules, any tax cuts that decrease tax revenue to the Treasury have to be paid for through some other offsetting measure.
>
>Please see the article below from National Journal's Congress Daily for a full discussion of the vote and other developments.
>
>Bottom-line:  Majority Leader Reid and Finance Committee Chairman Baucus have promised that they will address energy tax issues in this session.  We are working with our allies to determine next steps, and will communicate with the SEIA membership on our strategy going forward.
>
>Ultimately, we are still optimistic.  We have developed a strong and vocal group of solar champions in Congress, and the solar ITC provisions passed by the two tax committees clearly demonstrate recognition that Congress must enact a long-term solar energy policy.  The reasons for failure are unrelated to the solar provisions and while we are disappointed that the provisions are not passing now, we are confident that we will succeed in the end.
>
>Thanks
>Rhone Resch, SEIA Executive Director
>
>COMMITTEE APPROVED PROVISIONS:
>House Ways & Means approved:
>Commercial:  8 years section 48, AMT relief
>Removal of Utility Exemption
>Residential:  Zero years section 25, completely removes cap, AMT relief
>
>Senate Finance committee approved:
>Commercial:  8 yrs section 48
>Residential:   6 yrs section 25, $4,000 cap (adjusted upward from $2,000)
>No AMT relief
>Removal of Utility Exemption
>
>National Journal's CongressDaily, Friday, June 22, 2007
>
>The overall package will not include a $32 billion package of energy tax incentives, whose supporters Thursday were unable to get the 60 votes needed to limit debate and attach it to the larger bill. Because cloture on the broader bill was invoked Thursday, germaneness rules prevent the tax amendment from being offered again.
>
>Those rules could be waived with 60 Senate votes. But Senate sources said there is no chance of securing the three extra votes necessary to reverse Thursday's 57-36 cloture result by the end of floor debate.
>
>"We're done on this round," one Senate GOP aide said. Reid told reporters Thursday that while he is disappointed the tax measures could not be added to the bill, he will move ahead without them.
>
>Senate Finance Chairman Baucus said he will continue efforts to pass the energy tax provisions, without indicating what vehicle he will use to do so.
>
>"The Senate's very close vote on energy tax incentives today left the American people on the losing end . . .  I'm disappointed that some chose to keep the business-as-usual energy policy that has given us three-dollar-a-gallon gasoline and a warming climate as well," Baucus said in a statement.
>
>One possible scenario for reviving the Senate energy provisions would be that Baucus could negotiate with House lawmakers in conference from the basis of the Senate Finance Committee-passed bill, even though the provisions were not in the final Senate product.
>
>One Senate tax aide said there is precedent for such an approach -- Senate negotiators in the 2003 energy conference used a tax proposal that could not clear procedural hurdles on the Senate floor, the aide said.
>
>The Senate rejected cloture after intense lobbying from oil and gas interests against the Baucus tax amendment, which would raise taxes on oil and gas companies by as much as $26 billion over 10 years.
>
>One key opponent that helped to rally opposition to the amendment was Anadarko Petroleum, a Houston firm whose drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico would have been hit with a 13 percent excise tax under the bill.
>
>Anadarko -- which also holds natural gas deposits in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado -- helped persuade Western state senators to oppose cloture, an informed Senate source said.
>
>Meanwhile, a plan from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Bingaman to require utilities to produce electricity from renewable energy sources was officially ruled dead Thursday afternoon when it was included in a list of amendments struck down by unanimous consent for not being germane to the bill. The tax title was also included on that list.

  
------------------------
Michael Welch
Sr. Editor
     Home Power magazine
     www.homepower.com


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