Washington (Platts)--29Sep2008

In another attempt to extend renewable energy tax credits before they
expire at the end of this year, a member of the US House of Representatives is
offering a new bill that contains only the energy tax breaks and budget
offsets from a version recently passed by the US Senate.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York
Democrat, said the bill, H.R. 7201, "represents yet another attempt to come
closer" to the Senate's position. Rangel crafted the bill by taking the energy
credit extenders and revenue raisers from a broader extenders bill, H.R. 7060,
that passed the House last week.

But Senate leaders appeared unmoved from their position last week that
the House should pass the Senate's version of this bill. In a rare act of
bipartisanship, the Senate voted 93-2 last week to pass its package, H.R.
6049, of energy tax credit extensions, non-energy business credits and a fix
for the alternative minimum tax.

"The House needs to take a vote on the Senate package and pass these tax
breaks for jobs, energy and families, period, even at some cost," said Senate
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat who co-sponsored the
Senate bill.

The latest House bill contains a one-year extension of the production tax
credit for wind power; a PTC extension through September 30, 2011, for other
resources such as geothermal and biomass; an eight-year extension of the
investment tax credit for solar commercial and residential projects and a
waiver to allow electric utilities to claim the credit.

The new House bill also would provide $1.1 billion in tax credits for
demonstrations of advanced coal-generation and coal gasification projects with
carbon capture and sequestration technology. It would also extend the
production tax credit for biodiesel.

Budget offsets include freezing at 6% current tax deductions for domestic
production of oil and natural gas, placing foreign oil-related income under
the same tax treatment and mandating basis reporting by stock brokers.

The bill also would extend collections for the Oil Spill Liability Trust
through 2017 and increase the per-barrel tax by half a cent from 2009-2010 and
by one cent from 2011-2017.