I've been banging on this drum for a while now so forgive me if you've heard this before, but it's important. The single most effective thing we can do at the federal level to maintain the momentum we're seeing in US renewable markets is to extend the renewable energy Treasury Grant Program.
The time to act is now by urging your Senators to include it in the Extenders Bill currently moving through Congress.
The Treasury Grant Program is a cost-neutral stimulus.It simply replaces the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) with an equivalent cash grant--this is not an additional ask by the industry. It's just an alternate way to disburse funds and stimulate development activity--which in turn creates green jobs in addition to demand for renewable energy equipment and services. The current Program expires on December 31, 2010. We need to extend it another 2 years.
The purpose of the grant is to address the fact that there is no reasonable way for developers to monetize the ITC. Developers have traditionally relied upon investors with big tax bills to invest in renewable energy projects to monetize the tax credits. Last year's financial crisis decimated the tax equity market and it has not recovered sufficiently to meet the demand today's growth in solar and wind.
Without a way to monetize the ITC, developers will have less incentive to invest in advancing projects to construction--the point where they provide significant economic stimulus. Letting the Grant Program expire at the end of the year (or even allowing uncertainty about the Program to fester) will cause developers and lenders to begin pulling back from the market. That will set US renewables back at a time when we're poised to become one of the strongest and fastest growing markets in the world.
Contact your Senators and urge them to include an extension of the renewable energy Treasury Grant Program in the current Extenders Bill. You can find and contact your Senators here:
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