Thursday, October 02, 2008

Senate Puts Renewables Tax Package in Bailout Bill

The Senate passed its financial system bailout bill (H.R. 1424) 74 to 25 last night. They put the Senate version of the renewables tax package, which includes wind, solar and plug-in electric cars, in the bill. House Blue Dogs and others have insisted the renewables tax incentives include offsets from other areas to avoid adding to the deficit (H.R. 7060). Efforts to take away tax benefits from oil and gas companies and use them as offsets for renewables have repeatedly failed. Now the bill goes to the House, which rejected its bailout bill 228-205.

The Senate financial system bailout bill includes:

Purchase of up to $700 billion in troubled Mortgage Backed Securities

$250 available immediately

$100 billion at president's discretion

$350 billion subject to congressional review

Requirements for executive pay limits

Creation of several layers of oversight

[Text of H.R. 1424]

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