In case you’ve been asleep for the past seven years, we are in an energy crisis. The leadership of our country has failed to recognize this fact and has failed to call on us the citizens to implement strategies that will protect not only our environment, but our very way of life. Renewable energy is perhaps the one strategy which could lift our dependence on foreign oil and our over reliance on fossil fuels in general. Renewable energy is good for the environment too because it lessens greenhouse gas emissions which are contributing global warming. One of the methods governments can promote renewable energy is through the use of targeted tax cuts. Up until now all the bills that have passed through our national legislature have been defeated by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers which demonstrates the hold that the oil and gas industry has on our country. It’s easy to blame Messrs. Bush and Cheney, but while they are not advocates of this energy, they are not completely responsible for the non-action.
in brief, they’ve all been about funding: the bills either targeted oil & gas industry revenues to pay for the tax credits, or they had no source of funding at all. So they all ran into roadblocks manned, respectively, by Senate Republicans or House Democrats. To this day, no-one is willing to budge an inch from their position, even with legislation as important as this.
This week we heard something different from Capitol Hill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are urging the House Ways & Means Committee to support a small ($6-8 billion) renewable energy tax extenders package that would include Solar and that would be funded, not from the oil & gas industry but from the reporting of credit-card transactions to the IRS.–Solarnation
If you would like to take true patriotic action in the run up to this year’s Memorial Day call on your elected representatives to consider joining Solar Nation and do your part to foster renewable energy.