Tue, Jul 8, 2008 (2:09 a.m.)

Sen. John Ensign was opposed to extending tax credits for renewable energy development — before he suddenly and divisively became a vocal supporter of them.

Three times Ensign voted against the tax credits when paying for them meant ending taxpayer subsidies for cash-flush oil and gas companies, closing tax loopholes for multimillionaire hedge fund managers and postponing a tax break for multinational corporations.

Big businesses must not sacrifice even a fraction of their bountiful perks in order to help a fledgling renewables industry gain a foothold in this country, Ensign and fellow Republicans reasoned.

But Ensign, R-Nev., displayed a whole different outlook on renewable energy tax credits when all it meant was holding up and possibly killing a bill written to help people caught up in the foreclosure crisis save their homes.

On June 25, as the housing bill was cruising toward passage, Ensign used a parliamentary tactic to insist that an amendment extending the tax credits be added. Suddenly, Ensign was adamant that the country’s future depended on extending the renewables tax credits.

The catch here is that Ensign knows House Democrats have pledged to “pay as you go,” meaning they will not create any new programs or establish any new tax breaks without having a means to pay for them. And Ensign’s amendment contains no funding sources.

Our view is that Ensign, whose job as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee is to get Republicans elected to office, is playing a shameless game of politics.

What better way to tar the Democrats than to say they are delaying a desperately needed housing bill because they don’t want to approve extending tax credits for renewable energy?

This is how the Republicans will spin Ensign’s allegedly earnest amendment. And to think such politics are at work by a senator representing Nevada, the state hardest hit by the housing crisis and a state with unlimited potential for developing a renewables industry if tax credits are extended. Shameful.