New Green Tech Initiative from President Obama
November 8th, 2009
President Barack Obama proposed a new rebate program to reward homeowners for making their homes more energy efficient, while also proposing additional federal investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy. As part of his speech about jobs and the economy, the president noted that home energy retrofits create jobs, save money for families, and reduce the green house gas pollution that threatens our environment. The President also called for aid to small businesses and new investments in infrastructure of all types. Most of the president’s proposals will require congressional approval before going into effect.
Obama’s job plan calls for an expansion of select American Recovery and Reinvestment Act initiatives that promote energy efficiency and the creation of clean energy jobs. The president noted that one-third of the Recovery Act is intended for investments “to put Americans to work doing the work that America needs done,” such as doubling the U.S. capacity for producing power from renewable energy. However most of those initiatives are oversubscribed, causing many strong entrepreneurial and small business ideas to not get the needed funds to flourish. With that in mind, the Obama Administration is supporting the expansion of programs for which additional federal dollars will leverage private investment to create jobs quickly, via investments in industrial energy efficiency and new or extended tax incentives for investing in U.S. manufacturing facilities for renewable energy technologies.
Three Key Areas That Will be Focused on To Accelerate (Green) Job Growth
1. Helping Small Businesses Expand Investment, Hire Workers and Access Credit
- Tax cuts to support additional business investment next year with a particular focus on struggling small businesses with much of the cost recouped over time.
- Zero capital gains for small businesses: To encourage investment by small businesses and improve their access to capital, the Administration is calling for a one-year elimination of the tax on capital gains from new investments in small business stock. The Recovery Act allowed a 75% exclusion from capital gains taxes on small business investments.
- Extension of enhanced expensing provisions for small businesses: The Administration is also calling for the extension through 2010 of the Recovery Act provision that allows small businesses to immediately expense up to $250,000 of qualified investment.
- Extension of Recovery Act bonus depreciation tax incentive: To give businesses an incentive to invest, the Administration is calling for extending the Recovery Act provision that accelerates the rate at which business can deduct the cost of capital expenditures. This provision will put more than $20 billion in the hands of businesses in 2010, while enabling Treasury to recoup much of the funding as business regain their strength.
- A new tax cut for small businesses to encourage hiring in 2010. Although the economy is now growing again, many businesses remain reluctant to hire. In this economic environment, an employment tax cut for small businesses has the potential to accelerate the pace of hiring. The Administration believes it is important to provide a short-term tax incentive to encourage small business hiring and support employment, and will work with Congress to design a provision that accomplishes these goals.
- Eliminating fees and increasing guarantees for small businesses that borrow through major SBA programs in 2010. The President called for the elimination of fees and an increase in guarantees for loans through the Small Business Administration, a measure that extends provisions in the Recovery Act through the end of 2010. In addition, the President called for continued Treasury efforts to use the TARP to support small business lending.
2. Investing in America’s Roads, Bridges and Infrastructure
- Additional investment in highways, transit, rail, aviation and water. The President is calling for new investments in a wide range of infrastructure, designed to get out the door as quickly as possible while continuing a sustained effort at creating jobs and improving America’s productivity.
- Support for merit-based infrastructure investment that leverages federal dollars. The Administration supports financing infrastructure investments in new ways, allowing projects to be selected on merit and leveraging money with a combination of grants and loans as was done through the Recovery Act’s TIGER program.
3. Creating Jobs Through Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Investments
- New incentives for consumers who invest in energy efficient retrofits in their homes. Smart, targeted investments in energy efficiency can help create jobs while improving our energy security and saving consumers money. The President today called on Congress to consider a new program to provide rebates for consumers who make energy efficiency retrofits. Such a program will harness the power of the private sector to help drive consumers to make cost-saving investments in their homes.
- Expansion of successful oversubscribed Recovery Act programs to leverage private investment in energy efficiency and create clean energy manufacturing jobs. The Recovery Act included historic investments that have helped to build the foundation for a clean energy economy. The Administration supports expanding programs for which additional federal dollars will leverage private investment and create jobs quickly, such as industrial energy efficiency investments and tax incentives for investing in renewable manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
Department of Energy Awards $338 Million to Accelerate Domestic Geothermal Energy
October 29, 2009
Innovative geothermal projects are funded in support of project deployment, technology development, and data collection
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced up to $338 million in Recovery Act funding for the exploration and development of new geothermal fields and research into advanced geothermal technologies. These grants will support 123 projects in 39 states, with recipients including private industry, academic institutions, tribal entities, local governments, and DOE’s National Laboratories. The grants will be matched more than one-for-one with an additional $353 million in private and non-Federal cost-share funds.
“The United States is blessed with vast geothermal energy resources, which hold enormous potential to heat our homes and power our economy,” said Secretary Chu. “These investments in America’s technological innovation will allow us to capture more of this clean, carbon free energy at a lower cost than ever before. We will create thousands of jobs, boost our economy and help to jumpstart the geothermal industry across the United States.”
These grants are directed towards identifying and developing new geothermal fields and reducing the upfront risk associated with geothermal development through innovative exploration and drilling projects and data development and collection. In addition, the grants will support the deployment and creative financing approaches for ground source heat pump demonstration projects across the country.
Collectively, these projects will represent a dramatic expansion of the U.S. geothermal industry and will create or save thousands of jobs in drilling, exploration, construction, and operation of geothermal power facilities and manufacturing of ground source heat pump equipment.
The projects selected for negotiation of awards fall in six categories:
Innovative Exploration and Drilling Projects (up to $98.1 million): Twenty-four projects have been selected focusing on the development of new geothermal fields using innovative sensing, exploration, and well-drilling technologies.
Coproduced, Geopressured, and Low Temperature Projects (up to $20.7 million): Eleven projects have been selected for the development of new low-temperature geothermal fields, a vast but currently untapped set of geothermal resources. This includes geothermal heat found in the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells around the U.S., where up to ten barrels of hot water are produced for every barrel of oil.
Enhanced Geothermal Systems Demonstrations (up to $51.4 million): Three projects have been selected for the exploration, drilling and development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to validate power production from deep hot rock resources using innovative technologies and approaches.
Enhanced Geothermal Systems Components Research and Development / Analysis (up to $81.5 million): Forty-five projects have been selected to focus on research and development of new technologies to find and drill into deep hot rock formations, stimulate enhanced geothermal reservoirs, and convert the heat to power.
Geothermal Data Development, Collection and Maintenance (up to $24.6 million): Three projects have been selected for the population of a comprehensive nationwide geothermal resource database to help identify and assess new fields.
Ground Source Heat Pump Demonstrations (up to $61.9 million): Thirty-seven projects have been selected to demonstrate the deployment of ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling of a variety of buildings for a variety of customer types, including academic institutions, local governments and commercial buildings.
View the project selections announced today.
DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Program works in partnership with U.S. industry to establish geothermal energy as an economically competitive contributor to the U.S. energy supply. Learn more information about these awards on the Geothermal Technologies Program website.
This announcement covers projects selected for financial award. The final details and funding level of each project are subject to modification based on contract negotiations between the selected entity and the Department of Energy.
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Text of H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009:
Mr. WAXMAN (for himself and Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts) introduced a bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, Education and Labor, Science and Technology, Transportation and Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.
Click here for link to the full version of the Bill
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives approved economic stimulus legislation (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, H.R. 1). This legislation, which still needs to be considered by the U.S. Senate, includes investments in clean energy, energy efficiency, and green jobs, including:
Smart Grid / Advanced Battery Technology / Energy Efficiency ($32 Billion)
- Transforms the nation’s electricity systems through the Smart Grid Investment Program to modernize the electricity grid to make it more efficient and reliable. This will jumpstart smart grid demonstration projects in geographically diverse areas, increase federal matching grants for smart grid technology (20% to 50%) including “Smart Meters” that give consumer more choice in their energy consumption at home, and spur research and development. Build new power lines that can transmit clean, renewable energy from sources throughout the nation.
- Creates temporary loan guarantees for up to $80 billion for renewable energy power generation and electric transmission projects that begin in the next two years. These would help ease credit constraints for renewable energy investors and spur new private sector investment over the next three years.
- Supports U.S. development of advanced vehicle batteries and battery systems through loans and grants so that America can lead the world in transforming the way automobiles are powered. Also includes other initiatives to promote the use of alternative fuel vehicles by federal state and local governments.
- Helps state and local governments make investments for innovative best practices to achieve greater energy efficiency and reduce energy usage, including building and home energy conservation programs, energy audits, fuel conservation programs, building retrofits, and “Smart Growth” planning and zoning. Also encourages states to adopt updated energy-efficient building codes and regulatory policies to encourage utility-sponsored gains in energy efficiency.
- Spurs energy efficiency and renewable energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities at universities, companies, and national laboratories to foster energy independence, reduce carbon emissions, and cut utility bills.
- Provides consumer rebates to buy energy efficient appliances to replace old ones to lower energy bills.
- Makes key investments in carbon capture and sequestration technology demonstration projects to work toward making coal part of the solution and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from industrial facilities and fossil fuel power plants.
Tax Incentives to Spur Energy Savings and Green Jobs ($20 Billion over 10 years)
- Three-year extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for electricity derived from wind (through 2012) and for electricity derived from biomass, geothermal, hydropower, landfill gas, waste-to-energy and marine facilities (through 2013). Also permits businesses that place new renewable energy facilities in service during 2009 and 2010 to claim either a 30 percent investment tax credit (ITC) instead of the production tax credit, or apply for a grant of up to 30 percent of the cost of building a new renewable energy facility from the Energy Department. These provisions will help speed up investment in new facilities and will address current renewable energy credit market concerns.
- Promotes energy-efficient investments in homes by extending and expanding tax credits through 2010 for purchases such as new furnaces, energy-efficient windows and doors, or insulation. Increases the credit from 10 percent to 30 percent of the cost of the investment and raises the credit cap from $500 to $1,500, helping American families save money on their energy bills.
- Includes clean renewable energy bonds for State and local governments, electric cooperatives and public power to finance facilities that generate electricity from renewable resources and qualified energy conservation bonds for State and local governments to make a variety of energy conservation investments.
- Establishes an enhanced R&D tax credit for research expenditures in the fields of fuel cells, battery technology, renewable energy, energy conservation technology, efficient transmission and distribution of electricity, and carbon capture and sequestration, in 2009 and 2010.
- Increases incentives to install pumps that dispense alternative fuels including E85, biodiesel, hydrogen, and natural gas.
Repair Public Housing and Make Key Energy Efficiency Retrofits to HUD-Assisted Housing ($7.5 Billion)
- Establishes a new program to upgrade HUD sponsored low-income housing (elderly, disable and Section
to increase energy efficiency, including new insulation, windows, and furnaces.
- Invests in energy efficiency upgrades in public housing, including new windows, furnaces, and insulation to improve living conditions for residents and lower the cost of operating these facilities.
Landmark Energy Savings at Home ($6.2 Billion)
- Landmark provisions to improve the energy efficiency for more than 1 million modest-income homes through weatherization, expanding the number of families (from 150% to 200% of the federal poverty income levels) and the aid level (from $2,500 to $5,000 per household) to keep up with the rising prices of these upgrades;
- This will save modest-income families on average $350 per year on their heating and air conditioning bills.
Green Job Training and Energy Efficient Schools
- Provides $500 million to train workers for green-collar jobs.
- Creates new modernization, renovation, and repair programs for schools and colleges, with a minimum of 25 percent of the funds focused on green building projects.
- Energy sustainability and efficiency grants and loans to help school districts, colleges, local governments, and some hospitals become more energy efficient.
Modernizing Federal and Public Infrastructure to Lower Energy Costs
- Makes an historic investment in upgrading federal buildings and making them energy efficient — as part of an effort to modernize more than 75% of federal building space and save taxpayers $2 billion per year in lower federal energy bills.
- The federal government is the world’s largest consumer of energy.
- This will help spur jobs in the green building industry as well as save taxpayer money.
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