Energy Improvement And Extension Act of 2008 - Another Take

BAILOUT GENERATES ENERGY INCENTIVES.

So, President Bush has signed a bailout for Wall Street that’s only $73 billion less than the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Australia.

With the $700 billion bailout, and others such as the $200 billion for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the US national debt stands at $10.1 trillion, but giving themselves some wiggle room for increasing the debt even further, Congress has raised the borrowing limit to $11.3 trillion from $10.6 trillion. The current debt (that $10.1 trillion) represents about 70 percent of our overall economy and amounts to $33,500 for every man, woman and child in the country.

I’ll just write the Feds a check this afternoon and be off the hook for my share.
All of this has nothing to do about energy, of course, but the bill just signed includes many pot-sweeteners needed to entice enough signers and many of those are aimed at helping out the world of efficient and renewable energy.

It will take quite a while to decipher and define all that’s included in the bill but here’s a list of titles of sections of the legislation to give you an idea of what’s included green-energy-wise in the

Energy Improvement And Extension Act of 2008:
--- Renewable energy credit.
--- Production credit for electricity produced from marine renewables.
--- Energy credit for small wind property.
--- Energy credit for geothermal heat pump systems.
--- Credit for residential energy efficient property.
--- New clean renewable energy bonds.
--- Tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration.
--- Carbon audit of the tax code.
--- Inclusion of cellulosic biofuel in bonus depreciation for biomass ethanol plant property.
--- Credits for biodiesel and renewable diesel.
--- Extension and modification of alternative fuel credit.
--- Credit for new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles.
--- Alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit.
--- Certain income and gains relating to alcohol fuels and mixtures, biodiesel fuels and mixtures, and alternative fuels and mixtures treated as qualifying income for publicly traded partnerships.
--- Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters.
--- Qualified energy conservation bonds.
--- Credit for nonbusiness energy property.
--- Energy efficient commercial buildings deduction.
--- New energy efficient home credit.
--- Modifications of energy efficient appliance credit for appliances produced after 2007.
--- Accelerated recovery period for depreciation of smart meters and smart grid systems.
--- Qualified green building and sustainable design projects.
--- Special depreciation allowance for certain reuse and recycling property

The Rest from Green Energy News