Energy-related tax breaks and other incentives are the spring trend in the southern states, as bills passed in Georgia and presented in South Carolina this month would seem to indicate.

House Bill 670, signed into law by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue (R), creates a clean energy tax credit that’s $2.5 million each year for five years, to be used as income tax incentives for solar, wind, geothermal, and energy efficient buildings in both the commercial and residential sectors.

“We commend Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and her colleagues for recognizing the importance of energy efficiency in climate legislation that will be taken up by the Senate on June 2nd,” said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy of the Manager’s amendment to the Lieberman-Warner bill. “A carbon cap and trade would help drive energy efficiency, but other drivers also will be needed beyond a price signal,” she said.

The gas tax holiday plan suggested by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and supported by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is an empty solution to a complex problem. As Alliance President Kateri Callahan wrote in letters to all three presidential candidates (two imploring McCain and Clinton to reconsider the proposal, one praising Senator Obama (D-IL) for rejecting it): “There is no quick fix [for record-high prices for gasoline and oil], and rash action, even made with the best of intentions, can do more harm than good over both the short and long terms."

On April 22nd, Earth Day, the Montgomery Country Council in Maryland passed one of the most ambitiously efficient pieces of legislation in the nation: a requirement that all new single-family homes and townhouses satisfy the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR standards, which encourage the use of energy-efficient windows, effective insulation, and tightly-sealed structures.