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Bingaman, Snowe Release Comprehensive Energy Tax Incentive Package

U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee Ranking Member Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) on Monday introduced a comprehensive package of advanced energy tax incentives for clean renewable energy, energy efficiency, and carbon mitigation.

The senators urged their colleagues to support their Advanced Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2010 (S. 3935) before Congress adjourns in December.

"For far too long our country’s energy strategy has prioritized the technologies of the past while our policy debate has languished in partisanship. 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," said Snowe.

The bill incorporates several measures from bills the senators jointly introduced earlier this Congress alongside numerous new provisions. Measures include making $2.5 billion in tax credits available to attract manufacturers of renewable technologies and a $1 billion tax credit program to enable American manufacturers to undertake energy-saving measures that advance their competitiveness.

The bill also creates a tax incentive for energy storage systems, and it retools the tax credit for carbon capture and storage (CCS) to give CCS projects greater certainty.

Bingaman has said that if the Senate is unable to pass the American Clean Energy Leadership Act (ACELA), Congress ought to take up and pass several priority bills, including Bingaman’s proposed renewable energy standard.

The bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee. Bingaman and Snowe are senior members of that committee, and Bingaman is chairman of its Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources & Infrastructure.

Sources: Sen. Jeff Bingaman, POWERnews

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