Editorial: Get serious about renewables

Friday, Feb. 3, 2006 | 12:30 p.m.

In his last two State of the Union speeches, President Bush has been a cheerleader for renewable energy. Last year he said the country was in critical need of "environmentally responsible" energy. He urged Congress to "pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent on foreign energy."

Yet in July, Congress passed the energy bill crafted by Vice President Dick Cheney and advocated by Bush. It contained $4 billion in new subsidies for the oil and gas industries, according to an analysis by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Those industries rely heavily on imports. The struggling renewable industries, which use domestic sources to produce energy, were largely snubbed in the bill, which Bush enthusiastically signed in August.

One small bone, though, was tossed to the entrepreneurs working in the areas of clean, domestic energy. Since 1992 they have been eligible for various corporate tax credits, and last summer's bill extended their eligibility to the end of 2007.

In his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Bush again spoke as if he were sounding the trumpets for renewable energy. He went so far as to say that "America is addicted to oil." He told Congress that he supports a "22 percent increase in clean-energy research at the Department of Energy." He said the research would be directed at "how we power our homes and offices" and "how we power our automobiles."

Unfortunately, he included "clean, safe nuclear energy" as part of his plan (it is neither clean nor safe). But he also boosted "revolutionary solar and wind technologies." He set forth a goal - to "replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025." Bush neglected, however, to ask that renewable-energy industries have their corporate tax credits extended well past their current expiration date. Without such an incentive, the 2025 goal is not likely to be met.

In his 2005 address, Bush said the country must reward "the efforts and dreams of entrepreneurs." Those in the non-nuclear renewables industry are entrepreneurs of the first order, and we believe their efforts should be rewarded. We hope Bush follows through on his talk about renewable energy much better than he did last year.

Developing alternative energy plants is expensive, almost prohibitively so for small and medium businesses that are playing a critical role in this initiative. They need the tax credits, and Congress and the president should support renewing them for at least another decade.