Democrats Urge Renewable U.S. Energy Tax Breaks in Payroll Deal | CowboyByte

Democrats Urge Renewable U.S. Energy Tax Breaks in Payroll Deal | CowboyByte

Democrats Urge Renewable U.S. Energy Tax Breaks in Payroll Deal
Posted on December 16, 2011 by Cowboy Byte



U.S. Senate Democrats are trying to include a suite of tax breaks for renewable energy in a payroll tax-cut bill that Congress is considering.

They are proposing to continue a program that lets companies claim grants instead of tax credits, continue the main tax credit for wind energy production and revive a program that provided tax credits to manufacturers.

“I don’t think that’s final at this point,” Senator Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, said in a brief interview today. “That’s what we’re pushing for.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hasn’t released details of a new proposal to extend the payroll tax cut and expanded unemployment insurance before year’s end. The tax bill is one of the final items Congress will debate before leaving Washington for the year. The payroll tax cut and expanded jobless benefits expire Dec. 31.






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83 Responses to Democrats Urge Renewable U.S. Energy Tax Breaks in Payroll Deal
Monty Reed says:
December 16, 2011 at 11:07 am
Let them expire… Neither is of great benefit to people IMHO
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G Schmidt says:
December 16, 2011 at 11:20 am
Oil industry received (and still have) billions of dollars in tax breaks even after making billions in profits.

If you want to energize any industry that is dependent on heavy capital investments you need to provide incentives and I prefer tax breaks over loan guarantees.

Make sure they set an expiration date to make sure it does not happens similar to the tax breaks we offer the oil industry over 100 years ago.
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Michael Laborde says:
December 16, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Green energy is just another way for liberals to steal money from us; (the government). All of the so called global warming facts have been manipulated so as to scurried and man does not have any effect on warming. The earth is warming due to the increase of solar flares.
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Charles says:
December 16, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Green is a way liberals live off the people like leaches live off others.
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martin says:
December 16, 2011 at 5:29 pm
The only GREEN they want is our money
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dw663 says:
December 16, 2011 at 5:12 pm
These same people are saying that our energy grid and every other countries grid is going to fail due to a solar flare if the proper steps to protect the grid are not taken. Which they say we have to technology to due it it just costs a lot. Imagine that! It costs a lot. And Y2K was going to stop all the computers? And how many religious have killed themselves due to the end of the world coming?
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Mike says:
December 16, 2011 at 5:42 pm
So the Dimwits are still doing their thing on their Green Agenda, meanwhile stopping the Keystone Pipeline which would eventually create 100,000 real jobs and provide for more energy independence from the volatile Middle East. By all means, let’s keep investing in failed policies and not create any energy or jobs.
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Elwood says:
December 16, 2011 at 5:46 pm
Let’s please come to grips with what the so-called renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, ethanol and hydrogen really are! They are PIPE DREAMS, pure and simple!
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rulken says:
December 16, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Why pick on the oil companies? They employee people to look for, then research the best location to extract the oil. They then employe people to get it out of the ground and transport it to a refinery, which employes more people. Then ships it or trucks it to our local gas stations, in turn employing even more people.
Now after doing all that they get approximately $0.08 (eight cents) profit, on every gallon sold at the pump.
Our states are getting $0.35-0.55 (thirtyfive t0 fiftyfive cents), the feds are getting even more, for every gallon sold at the pump!
FORE WHAT!!!???
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Ray says:
December 16, 2011 at 2:12 pm
uh….to help pay for the roads, bridges, etc. That’s “fore” what.
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mickey2 says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Then why the “shovel ready” jobs? Big time rip off.

The best I can understand we manipulate other countries by forcing them to take loans for infrastructure, non tax producing projects, then raise the interest rates so they cannot repay the loans. Sound familiar? The states have to pay that money back. Excepting CA which seems to be taking all the money other states turned down. Think bankrupt CA will ever pay it back?
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ron yurchak says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:52 pm
For maintaining roads. LOL.
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mickey2 says:
December 16, 2011 at 2:53 pm
And the oil subsidies (lacke thereof) was supposed to pay for obamacare. Didn’t happen.
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ron yurchak says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Never will!!!!
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mickey2 says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:12 pm
tax breaks are loan guarantees. They are perpetual. Better to do away with IRS, the now government sponsored thugs.
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servant says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:42 pm
G.Smith: IF, you are in business, do you think that your business expenses, the cost of research, of inventory, of machinery that your business, could not exist without, be by your standards, considered to be a legit tax deductions, as a business expense?
Now how about oil’s search for new product/wells? Have you ever walked anywhere, and found a sign marked “Drill here for oil/gas? Have you ever seen such on any map, or a photo form space?
NO, neither has anyone else, and part of the so-called big oil tax breaks, are incentives to find more oil reserves.
Drug companies get to write off, all their research & development costs, and I hear no complaints about this write-of/tax break, and they operate on a 15-25% profit margin, while oil gets 3-6% profit per dollar, but yes they operate on huge dollar amounts, because we use billions of gallons of fuel!
You say this tax break is unchanged for 100 years? Wrong, it’s been cut several times, but are you willing to go out into the Gulf or in the Arctic Circle, to explore for new oil sources????
A little knowledge in a danger. NO, I am not fronting nor with, nor invested in oil/gas. But I do stay current with what’s going on.
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mickey2 says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:49 pm
They should be loans, a viable business expense, not subsidies. McD’s works on 5 cent profit too but now can use cellulose in the meat. Where’s the beef? McD’s isn’t the only one.
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Charles says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Lower taxes is still taxes, but tax Money Handouts are not the same. One producess more tax dollars and the other only wastes tax dollars and will never return anything.
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Dr. Evil says:
December 16, 2011 at 6:07 pm
Oil companies don’t get any tax breaks that all other companies don’t also get. Oil companies paid $5.7 billion in taxes last year. Compare that to GE (not an oil company) that paid zero. The solution is to eliminate loopholes in and simplify the tax code. The other thing to note is that if deductions are taken away from oil companies, the oil companies won’t actually pay the taxes, they will be rolled into the price of the products you buy, so you will be paying the taxes.

Remember, when you buy gas, the oil company profit is about 2 cents, the state taxes are about 50 cents, federal taxes are about 20 cents and the rest is the actual cost of production.
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Dwain says:
December 16, 2011 at 11:23 am
This whole thing is a farce.If renewable energy is so great private industry will pick it up and run with it with out tax breaks.
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George Gallo says:
December 16, 2011 at 12:12 pm
This is a great comment. Those pushing for tax breaks are just using oil industry’s model of financing, which isn’t right either. And of course, legislators always have to attach bills to a bill; one thing that should pass, with something more difficult to pass. This should stop.
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jb80538 says:
December 16, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Renewable energy isn’t that great that’s why private industry won’t deal with it unless there is government incentivews.

It’s really anything but “Green” most are really bad for the environment too.
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Fuzzy says:
December 16, 2011 at 2:50 pm
The only Green part of Green Energy is the Green Backs in which this Administration is giving away to corporations in which contribute money to their campaign. The only tax breaks that have done us any good are the ones for energy exploration within America. We have to engage in further exloration to make this country Energy Independent, then we won’t rely on other country’s and get caught in their price minipulations. On the other hand we would be able to sell our oil to other country’s to help pay down our debt.
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PipelinePete says:
December 16, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Here’s a novel thought; let’s make the Federal Government use every dollar it takes in from the Oil, Gas and Coal industry and spend it on it’s sacred renewable energy projects. Now I know this would remove many dollars from the general fund that are allocated to running many other Federal programs. The Fed’s would then have to raise our taxes in order to fund those programs. In doing so, they would have to justify each and every dollar spent on renewable energy against those dollars that are currently spent on domestic programs such as school aid, welfare, unemployment, etc. Let the games begin.
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J.M.R. says:
December 16, 2011 at 11:23 am
once again those brain dead liberals don’t weigh all the facts just fatten their own back pocket. wind turbins great but to getenough to work takes a lot of space then theres the idiots bitchen about seeing them or killing birds. now solar panels the midwest doesn’t have sun the year around so thats a joke.
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George Gallo says:
December 16, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Yeah, the bird thing is really annoying. Plus, some people don’t like the way the wind turbines look. Personally, I think they look great. Now, would I like fifty of those things in my back yard? So, I would have to duck a few dead birds falling out of the sky. I’ll just add them to my ‘road kill buffet.’
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Mayflower Decendent says:
December 16, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Wind turbines use just as much fuel to turn their blades as wind. They are run by generators when there is no wind which accomplishes nothing. The ones they wasted money on in our area I’ve yet to even see turn and they’ve been there for over 2 years now. The hundreds of them in Texas only put about 3% energy into the system and that is only at night time when people sleep other then that they contribute nothing to the electric grid.
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Ray says:
December 16, 2011 at 2:23 pm
You must be a Rush Limpball listener. He made that stupid comment a couple of years ago but I thought I’d never hear someone say it again. There are no “generators” to turn the blades. First of all a generator generates power, a motor delivers power. The generators in a windmill generate power when the wind reaches a high enough level to move the blades. The fact that the ones in your area have not been turning could be the simple fact that they never completed the installation to connect them to the grid. Maybe they are part of a larger unfinished project, it’s hard to say. However, if properly located, windmills produce power at a very low cost, and are a good option. The whole bird killing thing is a joke.
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mickey2 says:
December 16, 2011 at 2:47 pm
lol my utility company told me it would be $30K to tie into the grid. I want off the grid.

The bird thing is not such a joke. I never paid too much attention to the environment until I saw what was happening in the fields surrounding me. Everything is getting killed off. Mice (bless their hearts) bugs, everything due to GMO crops. And who is pushing these crops? Pharms and the fed.

I figure if the Amish can survive, I can too. No money in it to produce green, really though, meaning not taxes except in the form of rebates–your income taxes (or hidden) raised.
servant says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:56 pm
RAY:
IF what you say is factual, then private enterprise, would be pushing down the doors, to build wind generators every possible.
All without the Feds filling their pockets, but that’s NOT the case, is it?
I love Christmas Cake, but most do NOT, and many stores no longer stock them, that’s business, SUPPLY & DEMAND at work! If something doesn’t pay-off, it disappears, ditto with all green power generation!{Solar panels been around since the 1930′s!} If this was worth it, we’d see as in the 1970′s roofing shingles/solar panels on each and every roof, allowing each home to disconnect from the power company, but where is this today?
The MOST successful in GEO-Thermal, but do you see these plants all over?
NO?
WHY? Would you spend $100.00 to get $50.00 worth of product?
Not many will either!
martin says:
December 16, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Maybe if the government had got behind the Edsel and told everybody that we needed them and put tax money to build them. We would still have them even though nobody wanted or liked them.
John Detwiler says:
December 16, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Yes in the past year I accidently killed two birds while driving. Do you suppose I shoud park my car and walk where ever I intend to go. In Washingtn state for instance a wind power project was cancelled after several million dollars had benn invested. Guess why? It seems that the turning blades would kill some so called rare bird. And get this a ;east one of them every two years. It way past the time to get rif of the EPA and they clowns that support it.
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juggernaut69 says:
December 16, 2011 at 2:17 pm
I am not for subsidizing green energy. I think it is a scam. All we have to do is look how well our green dollars went to work in Green energy such as Solyndra Dollars. I think there will be something in the future other than fossil fuels however what do we use until then because I have not seen a viable replacement.
As for the killing of birds in the wind turbines this is a real problem. I was reading that some of the wind turbines are killing golden eagles faster than they can reproduce. I find the leftest support for these things to be hypocrisy at best. How can that claim to be saving the environment while killing birds people claim are important to our Eco-system.
What ever we do we need to be aware of the law of unintended consequences. There was a time that the car was cheered for the reduced pollution. It seemed that horses were horrible polluters. People had to watch their step or the would get the stinky, sticky pollution on their shoes and track it inside their homes. Now that time has gone on we know that cars pollute as well.
As far as dollars let technology sink or swim on its own. We are a country that is broke (we passed going broke a long time ago.) We cannot keep spending money we do not have on green energy pipe dreams. Let the market do its job get the government out of it.
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Brenda says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:16 pm
I’d rather see oil rigs & pumping units in my back yard and own all the mineral rights
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mickey2 says:
December 16, 2011 at 3:28 pm
umm I don’t think any of us own mineral rights any more. Most mortgages exempt this and the government, as far as I can ascertain, is trying to say it owns the rights.
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Ruth Bacon says:
December 16, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Many family-owned farms/ranches have maintained control of the mineral rights. Currently, when you buy farm or pasture acres, they are worth more if you can include the mineral rights – most sellers keep them. I grew up on a ranch my father purchased in 1930 and we still own the mineral rights on some of it. Including or excluding those mineral rights in a sale would be our perogative. I have never heard of the government claiming they own our mineral rights, YET!!
Ruth Bacon says:
December 16, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Incidentally, many of those ranchers, including us, would love to have a couple oil wells on the land. They could make us wealthy in royalties and would take up a very small area in the miles of land. Windmills would be another story. They would take much, much more room (to produce the same income as well as energy) and do destroy the landscape (view). They are not, at this point in time, an efficient energy producer, being too expensive to set up, and maintain.
Glenn says:
December 16, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Its not just the liberals on the take of this ruse.
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Michael Mock says:
December 16, 2011 at 11:29 am
Once again, Joe Citizen is left paying for the development and then gets hosed and overcharged for the benefit on the other end. This is the type of irresponsible actions from elected officials that got us, the middle class, into this mess in the first place. Joe Citizen can’t even put up a wind power machine because cities call these devices and eyesore. So, this benefit is for whom? Certainly not the average Joe.
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Jack says:
December 16, 2011 at 11:31 am
Our government has eliminated most of the domestic jobs either through regulatory suppression or favored foreign importation. With the tremendous job losses, the only thing that softens the blow of lost wages due to being laid off is emergency unemployment. Those who have run out are suffering tremendously. They are becoming homeless and loosing everything they spent a lifetime of hard work to attain.

As for alternative energy, it has nothing to do with the above. Congress should be prohibited from attaching riders and made to make proposed laws subject specific and simple. They are corrupt traitors who throw arsenic in the water so to speak and who are not adhering to the constitution they swore to uphold. Things don’t get done because they aren’t looking at proposals on simplistic constitutional grounds and the intent of establishing a limited peoples republic….not a big government leviathon.
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