Yet another twist in the ongoing saga to extend tax credits for the renewable energy industry.
In a move to pick up the $700 billion dollar economic rescue bill rejected by the House on Monday, the Senate will vote today on a bill that combines the economic bailout bill with the tax bill the Senate passed 93-2 last week.
The tax bill includes extensions of the investment tax credit (ITC) and production tax credit (PTC) for renewable energies like solar, wind and geothermal. The Senate will also add a measure that raises the deposit level insured by the FDIC from $100,000 to $250,000.
This measure has been called for by presidential candidates (and Senators) Barack Obama and John McCain. Obama and McCain said they will return to the Senate today for the vote.
Should the bill pass in the Senate, pressure will increase on the House, which sent the stock market on a nose dive Monday, when it rejected the bailout plan that would have allowed the federal government to buy bad mortgage debt from struggling financial institutions.
However, the measures added by the Senate simply add to the price tag of the bill. Fiscal conservative Democrats were already opposed to the Senate tax bill, which would have increased deficit spending. Likewise, the House ultimately rejected the bailout plan, because they were unwilling to pass the expense along to tax payers just weeks before an election.
What happens next is anyone's guess.
