Climate Law Update: Climate Change & Sustainable Energy News : Thelen Reid Law Firm : Renewable Energy, Construction, Project Finance Lawyers & Attorneys

There were some signs Thursday that the huge bill that gained approval in the U.S. Senate the day before to fix the nation's financial mess -- and, by the way, to extend those long-stalled renewable energy tax credits -- might be headed for passage in the House.

The legislation, as outlined in a summary and a budget analysis coming from lawmakers, contains about $17 billion for such things as tax incentives for renewable energy, conservation, plug-in electric vehicles, cellulosic biofuels and carbon capture. It extends for one year the production tax credit for wind energy, and includes an eight-year extension for investment tax credits for solar energy projects. It also sweetens the tax breaks for residential solar investments.

Despite the apparent urgency of the bailout and the extension of renewable tax credits and other, unrelated, tax breaks in the bill, there still could be problems in the House. The New York Times' blog, Green Inc., examined how the politics of the energy tax breaks, and particularly the legislation's support for such activities as converting coal to fuel and refining the product of tar sands or oil shale might affect the critical House vote, expected Friday.

The Bush administration, meanwhile, strongly endorsed the legislative package, including its renewable energy provisions. At the same time, trade groups, such as the Solar Energy Industries Association, urged its members to contact their representatives in Congress to support the bill. The American Wind Energy Association also applauded the Senate action and asked for the House to approve the measure.

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A day after legislation was overwhelmingly passed by the U.S. Senate to extend federal tax credits for wind, solar and other renewable energy sources the House had yet to act and it appeared the chamber would take yet another new look at the issue.

If nothing is done, the credits would expire at the end of the year.

The Senate approved its estimated $18 billion measure on Tuesday. Shortly thereafter,  Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-NY (pictured), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced his own and different version of the bill. It was not certain when the House would tackle the measure, despite earlier reports, such as a dispatch from Bloomberg, that lawmakers would act on the matter Wednesday.

Some key elements of both bills appeared to be identical. For instance, each would renew tax incentives for wind for another year and would give an investment tax credit for solar projects a new eight-year lease on life. They would also extend incentives for other sources, such as biomass, geothermal and marine, although for slightly different periods of time.

But the House version was valued at somewhat less than the Senate bill, $16 billion as opposed to $18 billion. Rangel, in a statement earlier in the week, had criticized the Senate measure -- which curtailed some tax breaks for fossil fuels in order to pay for the renewable incentives -- for still not doing enough to pay for the tax breaks:

“Sadly, they did not live within their means, and their bill would add billions to the national deficit at a time when we can hardly afford it. The House will soon consider, and pass legislation providing the Senate with an opportunity to pass and help enact these tax incentives, fully offset by the provisions they have already blessed."

The Senate measure had also come in for criticism from some environmentalists, such as the Sierra Club, for giving some tax breaks to industries involved in liquid coal, tar sands and oil shale. But the Bloomberg story had suggested that extending an incentive for refineries that can handle fuels such as those from Canadian tar sands was critical to reaching a compromise allowing the measure to move forward. The House version appears to drop those provisions, a Sierra Club official told Climate Law Update on Wednesday.

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• A federal appeals court Monday decided against a request by the federal government to take another look at a 2007 ruling that effectively required officials to consider the effects on global warming when setting fuel economy standards for certain vehicles such as pickups and sport utility vehicles, but the court did make some modifications. An environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, issued a statement calling the changes "minor" but it said the Bush administration is still not doing enough. 
• Congress will apparently get a chance to vote on offshore oil drilling but a measure being  prepared by the majority Democrats in the House will also include boost for renewable energy, reports The New York Times. Meanwhile, there's lots to consider as this whole energy debate plays out in Washington and elsewhere, demonstrates this posting from the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog. 
• Icebreakers -- they aren't just for singles parties any more. The big boats that can cruise through solid water without going all Titanic are in big demand as, ironically, climate change reduces the amount of Arctic ice, see more in this story from The New York Times.
• The booming renewable industry in Colorado provides a preview of the debates that are likely to emerge nationally, suggests this article from the Washington Post.
• And here's more on that pivotal state's energy picture, focusing on the politically and environmentally contentious issues raised by oil shale, from the Denver Post.
• A conflict of interest case involving a private firm advising the Nuclear Regulatory Commission "offers a rare glimpse at one of the consequences of the government's unprecedented reliance on contractors to help federal agencies," reports the Washington Post.
• Canadian reporters venture south and find a North Carolina couple with tons of ideas on how to cut a home's carbon footprint -- and who've of course written a book about it, from the Globe and Mail.
• The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for July 2008 tied with 2001 and 2003 as the fifth warmest July since worldwide record-keeping started in 1880, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

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• A federal appeals court panel in Washington has rejected a move by numerous states (including California and Massachusetts) and private groups to pressure the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency into regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Here are stories from The New York Times and the Boston Globe's The Green Blog, as well as Climate Law Update's previous coverage of this case.
• The big anti-greenhouse gas plan unveiled by California air pollution regulators this week prods the state toward a future less dependent on cars, according to this analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle. It also constitutes "the first comprehensive effort to combat global warming by any American state," but it has a long way to go before it takes effect, reports the Los Angeles Times, as the news media weigh in heavily on the document.
• Republicans in the Senate have introduced legislation to open up public lands in Utah and elsewhere to oil shale exploration and production, according to the Deseret News. But such an attempt faces intense opposition from environmental groups, including the Wilderness Society and the Center for Biological Diversity, warning of the time it would take to produce the oil and high levels of greenhouse gases it would generate.
• Forest plant species may be migrating to higher elevations to survive climate change, scientists report in a study cited in this Reuters dispatch. 
• Along similar lines, an analysis of data from nearly 50 years of weekly fish-trawl surveys in Narragansett Bay and adjacent Rhode Island Sound reveals a long-term shift in species composition, likely related to global warming, reports Science Daily.
• Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair concedes he could have done more to combat climate change but he nevertheless defends his record, in this article in the Guardian. 

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