October 6, 2008
Congress and President Bush took unprecedented action Friday to shore up the nation's financial system, approving a $700 billion bailout plan that represents the largest government intervention in the private sector since the Great Depression.
For the House, Friday's vote to try to stabilize the economy may have been the most expensive "do-over" in legislative history. By a 263-171 vote, the House passed the Senate version of the bill, reversing its vote Monday, when it rejected an earlier version. In four days, 58 members switched from opposition to support.
By Washington standards, government moved at warp speed Friday. Less than two hours after House passage, President Bush signed the bill, which authorizes the Treasury Department to buy troubled debt from banks in hopes of unfreezing the credit market.
Bush praised leaders of Congress for passing a bill "essential to helping America's economy weather the financial crisis."
The final version of the bill also includes provisions that will help the economy of Silicon Valley: $18.5 billion in tax credits for power generated by solar, wind and other renewable sources, and language that protects about 20 million taxpayers from paying the alternative minimum tax, which was meant to target the wealthy but increasingly hits the middle class.
...For the solar and wind energy industry, the bill was a new lease on life after it appeared a deadlocked Congress would be unable to renew tax credits due to expire at the end of the year.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to add the tax package to the bailout bill Wednesday, and send it to the House as a "take it or leave it" vote, was a last-minute win for renewables. The solar industry gained an 8-year extension of the investment tax credit.
"Today the renewable energy industry, particularly solar, can exhale," said Ellen Bastier, a San Francisco-based attorney with the Thelen law firm, which represents alternative-energy companies. "The extension of these incentives should help the industry establish itself as a permanent part of the nation's energy picture."
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