Like Jerome a Paris, I work in the business of financing wind farms and solar energy projects.
Because the production tax credits are not being extended (for the first time in several years) work on financing all new projects, countrywide, has stopped.
I went from working 60 hours a week to about ten hours (cleaning up old projects). This time last year I was working on several new wind farm projects that were being financed and were set for construction -- now there are none.
The solar industry is being hurt even worse because there are greater risk factors. With the tax incentives in doubt, major projects are being "shelved" and they may never get the momentum to return.
If the tax breaks are not extended the renewable business has to go into hibernation for several months and hope the credits are renewed next year.
The reason the tax incentives are not being renewed is that enough "Blue Dog" Dems are insisting that they now be offset by taking back certain tax breaks given to other industries. This had never been a condition of the tax incentives in the past. It is ironic that in a year when the wind and solar industry seems to have unbridled support from just about everyone running for any national office (and the images a spinning wind turbines and shining solar panels are in just about every candidate's TV ad) we have the first year in a decade that the renewable energy tax credits are not being extended.
Although it is a good idea, the Senate Republicans will not agree to offsets and they don't care if the tax incentives lapse. The Senate Republicans will be just as happy to see the wind and solar industries collapse as thrive. They will only agree to an extension without offsets. They hold the cards here, so it either gets done their way or not at all.
After the next election a much better bill should be passed, but for now the choice is simply to shut down the renewable energy industry or not.
If Reid's move to add the extensions to the rescue plan is not supported the renewable energy business will suffer a huge setback. It will likely comeback when a new Congress and President come in but a lot will be lost in the process.