solar lobbying needs our help

[thankyouOB]

got this email today from SEIA

Act now! Congress considering 1603 extension in payroll tax bill

Peter,

I wanted to follow up on the message we sent last week. We need your help in our efforts to extend the 1603 Treasury Program, an important federal incentive that is successfully driving growth in America’s solar industry.

Please take a moment to contact your Senators and urge them to include an extension of the successful 1603 Treasury Program in the payroll tax package. Be sure to remind them that a failure to extend the 1603 Treasury Program will hurt small businesses and stifle job creation.

http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6422/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=5378" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The 1603 program is hands-down one of the most successful policies ever enacted to deploy renewable energy. In only two years, it has generated over $22 billion in private sector investment to jump-start more than 22,000 renewable energy projects across the country, which has created tens of thousands of new American jobs. According to EuPD Research, extending the program would support 37,000 additional jobs and deploy 2,000 additional megawatts of solar capacity – enough to power 400,000 homes – in the next year alone.

Please take a few moments to contact your Senators TODAY. We need to stand together to let Congress know that extending the 1603 program will help make sure solar keeps working for America.

Best regards,

B. Manning Feraci
Vice-President, Legislative Affairs
Solar Energy Industries Association

 

[thankyouOB]

signed.
how about you?

 

[lspooz]

Please take a moment to contact your Senators and urge them to include an extension of the successful 1603 Treasury Program in the payroll tax package. Be sure to remind them that a failure to extend the 1603 Treasury Program will hurt small businesses and stifle job creation.


signed email petitions are worth the paper they're printed on...

Most senators are old-school and they [actually their office flunkies] put a LOT more weight in signed letters from voters, so you get much more effect from a short signed letter via snail mail...

Yes, 2 letters mailed to my senators

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i am in. i do not do snail mail if it can be avoided and any legislator who treats email any lighter than regular mail would be hard to find because not even an idiot would be stupid enough to admit it.

 

[LakeLeaf]

The only response I've gotten from email sent to my Senators is to be put in their spam email list. No "Thanks for the letter" or "I'll take it under consideration" - just a return stream of junk about how great a job they think they are doing.

 

[Herm]

http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/recovery/Pages/1603.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"The purpose of the 1603 payment is to reimburse eligible applicants for a portion of the cost of installing specified energy property used in a trade or business or for the production of income. A 1603 payment is made after the energy property is placed in service; a 1603 payment is not made prior to or during construction of the energy property."

How much of a portion of the cost do they reimburse?.. it would be nicer if it was limited to US made solar panels.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

The only response I've gotten from email sent to my Senators is to be put in their spam email list. No "Thanks for the letter" or "I'll take it under consideration" - just a return stream of junk about how great a job they think they are doing.

nice!!. this is not my first email but i have never received a response like yours. i personally would change the "To:" field to every newspaper within 100 miles reposting both your letter and their response.

it is early but the only thing i got was a email from Michael Rader from SEIA.

now; one thing you might want to do is paste the email response and send it from your personal email in case their IT department trained with WA State IT (which is totally inept)

 

[downeykp]

I got a response from my senator Maria Cantwell. She is in favor of solar energy and would do all she could to support it. Below is the reply that I got from her.

Dear Mr. Downey,

Thank you for contacting me about the importance of the Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit.  I appreciate hearing from you on this important matter. 

 As you may know, Congressman Dave Reichert (R–WA) introduced the American Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit Extension Act of 2011 (H.R. 3307) on November 2, 2011.  If enacted, this legislation would extend through 2016 the tax credit for electricity produced from wind, biomass, geothermal or solar energy, landfill gas, trash, hydropower, and marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy facilities.  This tax credit is currently set to expire at the end of 2012 for wind generation and 2013 for other technologies.  Although there is no companion measure in the Senate at this time, please be assured I will keep your thoughts in mind should I have the opportunity to consider this legislation in the future. 

 

One of my top priorities as a U.S. Senator has been to push for legislation that promotes more renewable energy production, incentivizes energy efficiency, develops clean technology industries, and protects our environment.  These initiatives will help shift our nation to a cleaner, more diverse, and more distributed energy system based on domestically produced and environmentally friendly 21st century technologies. In 2008, I reached across the aisle to author and enact into law legislation with Senator Ensign of Nevada which extended this tax credit to its current expiration date in the landmark American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

 

One particularly successful incentive that I am proud to have had a lead role in authoring and advocating for is the Section 1603 Treasury grant program (TGP).  The TGP makes existing clean energy tax credits, such as the Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit, much more effective and accessible by allowing renewable energy projects to receive a lump-sum upfront payment of equal value to credits they would have received over the next decade.  Since enactment in February 2009, this program has leveraged nearly $23 billion in private sector investments in 22,000 projects in every state and across a dozen clean energy industries, including solar, wind, biomass, fuel cell, combined heat-and-power, and hydropower projects.  To date, the program has spurred the construction of sufficient new generation capacity to power more than one million American homes and has supported roughly 290,000 U.S. jobs.  This program has proven to be a tremendous success – boosting both investment and employment in the Northwest and throughout the country.

 

Unfortunately, Section 1603 expired at the end of 2011, putting at risk billions of dollars in new clean energy projects and thousands of new jobs. But I am not giving up.  On December 7, 2011, I co-signed a letter with 34 Senators to Senate Majority Leader Reid and Senators Baucus, McConnell, and Hatch urging them to extend these tax credits in any tax package that might be brought in front of the Senate for consideration. 

 
I have fought to make our nation's energy system cleaner, more efficient, and more diverse since being elected to serve in the Senate.  Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts on renewable power in mind as I continue working with my colleagues to further develop balanced, sustainable solutions to our nation's long-term energy challenges.
 

Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter.  You may also be interested in signing up for periodic updates for Washington State residents.  If you are interested in subscribing to these updates, please visit my website at http://cantwell.senate.gov.  Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance.

 

 

[Herm]

Apparently it was not included in the legislation.. its a shame, I'm all for tax credits.