Alliance Applauds Senate Finance Committee for Including Energy-Efficiency Tax Incentives in Stimulus Package

For Immediate Release

For Further Information
Ronnie Kweller (202) 530-2203; rkweller@ase.org

Washington, D.C., January 30, 2008 – The Alliance to Save Energy praised the Senate Finance Committee today for including four major energy-efficiency tax incentives as part of the economic stimulus package it approved for full Senate consideration. 

“Today’s action by the Senate Finance Committee can help American consumers combat spiraling home energy costs that are expected to average roughly $2,200 this year and will have a downstream, positive impact on jobs and our economy,” Alliance President Kateri Callahan noted.  “Energy-efficiency tax incentives put money into the economy by encouraging the purchase of energy-efficient products and services and put money back into the pockets of consumers and businesses by lowering their monthly energy bills,” Callahan said. 

She added, “And while today the Senate Finance Committee is using energy efficiency tax incentives as an economic tool, these incentives also work as effective policy measures for reducing CO2 and other pollutants, as well as enhancing our energy security.”

She added: “It is particularly beneficial that the consumer credits for energy-efficiency home retrofits and the manufacturer credits for high-efficiency appliances, which expired at the end of 2007, would be extended for two years.  This would keep all the energy-efficiency tax incentives ‘live’ through 2009, as Congress already extended through 2008 the incentives for commercial buildings and new homes.”

Briefly, the tax provisions provide:

• Tax credits up to a total of $500 for homeowners who install new ENERGY STAR windows,exterior doors, or pigmented metal roofs; install highly energy-efficient furnaces, boilers, central air conditioners, heat pumps, or water heaters; or add insulation (the amounts vary for each product; see www.ase.org/taxcredits for details);
• Tax credits for manufacturers of energy-efficient clothes washers, dishwashers, and refrigerators (see www.energytaxincentives.org for details);
• Tax deductions for owners or tenants of new or renovated commercial buildings who cut by at least half the annual heating, cooling, ventilation, water heating, and interior lighting costs that meet the national ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2001; (see www.energytaxincentives.org for details); and
• Builders of new homes that exceed a national model energy code by 50 percent (subject to certification) and producers of manufactured homes producers that exceed a national model code by 30 percent or that meet ENERGY STAR standards (see www.energytaxincentives.org for details).

Callahan saluted Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Ranking Minority Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash), Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and the other Finance Committee members “for their foresight and creativity in adding energy-efficiency tax incentives to the stimulus package so that we ‘stimulate’ movement toward environmental and energy security imperatives, even as we seek to prop up the flagging economy.”

The Alliance calls upon the full Senate, the House and the president to follow the lead of the Senate Finance Committee in recognizing the important economic, environmental, and energy security benefits of driving greater energy efficiency in the U.S. economy through the tax code.

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The Alliance to Save Energy is a coalition of prominent business, government, environmental, and consumer leaders who promote the efficient and clean use of energy worldwide to benefit consumers, the environment, the economy, and national security.