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• National Agricultural Law Center

Summary

This report reviews the status of energy efficiency and renewable energy legislation introduced during the 110th Congress. Most action in the second session is focused on the FY2009 budget request and legislation that would extend or modify selected renewable energy and energy efficiency tax incentives. The House Appropriations Committee recommends $2.5 billion for DOE's FY2009 Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) programs, about double the amount requested by DOE and $800 million more than the FY2008 figure. The proposed Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act appears as Title X of the Senatepassed housing bill, the Foreclosure Prevention Act (H.R. 3221[S. 2821]/H.R. 5984). For renewables, the bill would extend or modify the production tax credit, the business solar tax credit, the residential solar tax credit, and the clean renewable energy bonds (CREBs). For energy efficiency, it would extend or modify the credit for existing homes, the credit for new homes, the commercial building deduction, and the appliance credit for manufacturers. H.R. 3221 does not contain revenue offsets. The House passed an amended version of H.R. 3221 that stripped out the energy tax provisions. S.Amdt. 5020 to S.Amdt. 4983 would reinstate the provisions. The House approved H.R. 6049 by a vote of 263 to 160. It would extend or reestablish tax incentives to support renewable electricity production, biofuels production, transportation efficiency and conservation, buildings efficiency, and equipment efficiency. The Administration has threatened to veto H.R. 6049, due to its proposal to generate revenue offsets from a tax change for deferred compensation in offshore companies and delayed relaxation of a foreign tax credit limit. A Senate cloture vote to proceed to H.R. 6049 failed. The energy tax provisions of S. 3125 (the proposed Senate substitute to H.R. 6049) contain longer extensions for solar credits, but are otherwise nearly identical. A second cloture vote on H.R. 6049, with the intent to substitute the text of S. 3125, also failed. However, the motion to proceed to H.R. 6049 remains under consideration in the Senate. The Climate Security Act (S. 3036) failed on a cloture vote. It would have established a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Eight of the bill's 17 titles contain provisions for energy efficiency and/or renewable energy. The enacted "2008 Farm Bill" extends, expands, and adds to several energy efficiency and renewable energy provisions of the Farm Security Act of 2002. More than 390 bills on energy efficiency and renewable energy have been introduced. About one-third of these bills are focused on renewable fuels and about one-third would provide a tax incentive for investment, energy production, fuel use, or fuel reduction. For each bill listed in this report, a brief description and a summary of action are given, including references to committee hearings and reports. Also, a selected list of congressional hearings, CRS reports, and Government Accountability Office (GAO) documents on energy efficiency and renewable energy are included. This report will be updated periodically.

Related Legislation:
• H.R.3221
• S.2821
• H.R.5984
• H.R.6049
• S.3125
• S.3036
• S.17

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