Sign us right up for a big ol’ helping of green pork!
What is “green pork?”
From wired.com:
“Clean technology companies of all sorts are cheering the green pork that legislators added to the $700-billion Wall Street bailout bill that passed Congress last week.Extensions to tax credits for wind and solar power producers finally got their long-awaited passage, but a slate of more obscure provisions could help drive new interest in a diverse array of green businesses, including geothermal, solar thermal, tidal, and wave power, plug-in hybrid cars, and energy efficiency aids.”
Alright! So in the midst of the general free-for-all that the markets have become, somehow, near-miraculously, a bill got attached to Bail Out bill that renewed tax incentives, funding, and support to a huge range of sustainable-energy programs. Things like wind, solar and biofuels.
Excellent!
Annie Carmichael at Vote Solar sent this wildly encouraging email to some lucky folks, and we were fortunate enough to get cc’d:
“Dear Friends:
It is finally time to celebrate. Congress just passed a long-term extension of the solar investment tax credit. An 8-year extension of both the commercial solar tax credit and the residential solar tax credit (with removal of the monetary cap), passed the Senate (74-24) on Thursday and the House (263-171) this afternoon. The President is set to sign the bill into law shortly.
It’s been a long road and we want to thank each of you for adding your voice to this campaign; the consistent public pressure saved this credit. We also want to give props to the hard working folks at the Solar Energy Industry Association who walked the halls of Congress day in and day out for two years rallying support for this vital tax credit. Thanks to all of you over 440,000 jobs will be created in the solar field in the next 8 years, and over $232 billion of investment will be pumped into our economy. Now that’s economic stimulus.”
So, the dark clouds have come with serious silver linings! Or green linings! Whichever color you prefer, the linings mean further steps toward clean, renewable, decentralized energy for us all.
News worth celebrating. Congratulations to us all!
(Disclaimer: The above image is not Porky Pig. Porky Pig is pink and has a much smaller nose. If Hambone resembles Porky Pig in any way it is simply because all cartoon pigs look alike, no? Either that, or it’s a parody. You choose.)
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