Solar lobby hopes bill has 9th life

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And then, if you are a lobbyist working on the renewable energy tax credits, try a few more times.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) counts eight Senate votes so far this year on bills that would extend breaks to the solar and wind energy industries. The tax breaks enjoy widespread support in Congress, and the industries say they are critical to their growth.

{mosads}So far, though, none of the votes has resulted in a bill reaching the president’s desk to extend the subsidies beyond their end-of-year expiration date.

Senate Republicans, backed by business lobbies like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, object to “pay-fors” in bills that would offset the costs of the tax breaks to the treasury.

This week, there could be a ninth vote, to shut off debate on an extender bill.

The new bill, released by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) requires insurance companies to include mental health coverage that’s on par with other medical benefits they offer; plugs a multibillion-dollar hole in the Highway Trust Fund that pays for highway construction and mass transit systems; and provides disaster-relief money to flooded communities in the Midwest.

All of this is meant to sweeten the pot for wavering Republicans and some of their backers downtown.

The bill also extends solar investment tax credits worth an estimated $1.8 billion for eight years, and provides nearly another $1 billion to encourage residents to install solar panels on their homes.

Thousands of jobs and billions invested in the solar industry are at risk if Congress doesn’t extend the tax breaks, the industry contends.

“It’s a very good bill, but we need it now,” said Monique Hanis, a spokeswoman for SEIA.

“Projects and manufacturing plans are already being putting on hold,” she wrote in an e-mail.

SEIA’s chairman, Roger Efird, the CEO of Suntech North America, is in Washington this week to lobby lawmakers to support the tax credit extension. He has a personal story to tell: Suntech has put off plans to build a facility in the United States until Congress approves the extension.

{mospagebreak}Chances for a vote seemed to improve on Monday with the announcement that an impasse over oil drilling may have been resolved. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said amendments on drilling offshore and in protected Western regions could be part of the debate on a bill designed to improve oversight of oil futures markets supported by Democrats.

Reid said Democrats and Republicans would each be able to offer four amendments, and at press time Republicans looked likely to accept the deal.

Democrats have targeted the impact of investors flooding oil futures markets over the past several years and sought to speed development on leases oil and gas companies now hold.

{mosads}But they have resisted the daily Republican push, in both the House and Senate, to lift moratoriums blocking production in most of the Outer Continental Shelf and in Western lands that hold large oil shale reserves.

Before Reid spoke on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) indicated there was time to pass both the extender and broader energy bills this week.

“When the Senate decides to accomplish things, it can do it in record time,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday.

He conditioned action on the extenders bill on progress on the speculation and production bill.

In the debate over extenders, business groups that support the tax cuts have been caught in the budget blood feud over offsets for much of the summer. Lobbyists have sought to accentuate the positive by focusing on the benefits of extending tax breaks without commenting on whether those breaks should be paid for.

Baucus’s bill was clearly intended to build support off Capitol Hill as well as on it.

Take the highway budget fix, for example. Americans have responded to skyrocketing gas prices by driving less. As demand drops, so too do gas tax receipts. That means less money for highway and bridge construction and mass transit programs.

Rising prices for concrete, asphalt, steel and other construction materials have worsened the shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund, creating an $8 billion squeeze.

A summary of the extender package warns that 380,000 jobs could be lost unless that budget hole is filled.

All of this puts the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in an awkward spot. The Chamber is part of a new transportation coalition that has advocated for an increase in the gas tax to pay to update the nation’s aging infrastructure. But the group remains steadfast against other types of tax increases, including the offsets in the extender bill.

As a result, the Chamber is opposing the current package because it offsets the tax extenders with a new tax on hedge fund managers, and delays a tax credit targeted for multinational corporations.

“The Chamber supports the extenders. We support the Highway Trust Fund fix. We support mental health parity, and a lot of other things that are included in the bill,” said Janet Kavinoky, the Chamber’s director of transportation and infrastructure public policy.

“But we fundamentally disagree with the revenue-raising provisions that would raise tax on business to extend current law.”