The legislation extends the tax credit for wind energy for one year and allows an eight-year extension for investment tax credits for solar energy projects. Tax credits ranging from US$2,500 to $7,500 would be provided to buyers of electric cars.
The bill also provided tax breaks for biodiesel, despite critics’ warnings that the subsidy provides a loophole for companies to mix foreign biofuels with US biodiesel to receive the US subsidy, only to sell the fuel at a discount to European markets.
The president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, Rhone Reschthat, estimated that tax credits contained in a bailout package could create 440,000 permanent jobs and add US$325 billion in private investment in the US solar energy sector. A bailout proposal is currently being debated in the House of Representatives.
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