Senate Passes Energy Tax Breaks as Part of Markets Rescue Plan

By Daniel Whitten and Ryan J. Donmoyer

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate approved tax cuts valued at more than $100 billion, including a host of alternative energy credits and dozens of breaks for businesses and individuals, as part of its $700 billion bank rescue bill.

The legislation, which the House likely will act on tomorrow, passed the Senate on a 74-25 vote. It would give the Treasury Department authority to buy troubled assets, chiefly mortgage- backed securities that are burdening financial institutions.

The Senate added the tax provisions to woo Republican votes in the House, where an earlier version of the bailout plan failed by 12 votes on Monday. The tax package would spare 24 million American households from a scheduled alternative minimum tax increase this year, renew credits for business research, and extend $17 billion in energy incentives.

House adoption of the provisions would end a 10-month stalemate in Congress over how to deal with the budget impact of the tax breaks. It would also bolster the balance sheets of companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Harley-Davidson Inc. that rely on the research credit, as well as those producing energy from wind and solar sources.

It would be ``virtually impossible'' to expand solar energy without the credit, Madison Grose, a managing director at Starwood Capital Group LLC, said yesterday in an interview before the vote. ``The cost to the rate base for these types of projects is substantially higher without the investment tax credit being part of the capitalization of the projects.''

Power Costs

Power bills from solar facilities would be as much as double those from other power sources, meaning solar power would not be ``economically possible or viable,'' he said. Starwood has an agreement with Lockheed Martin Corp. to finance solar projects.

The breaks for the energy industry include $1.9 billion for an eight-year tax extension for solar energy, $5.8 billion for wind, geothermal, biomass and other alternative energy production and $900 million for retooling refineries to process heavier oils from shale and Canada's tar sands.

The tax legislation also includes $42 billion in incentives for businesses and individuals for two years, including about a $9 billion annual research and development benefit.

House Goes Next

The bailout bill now goes to the House where it may face a close vote. House Republican leaders who support the bailout and tax measure say some members have been swayed by a torrent of calls from voters pressing lawmakers to pass the bill and a 777- point plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Sept. 29 when the House defeated the initial bailout package.

``I can't assure you that the Republicans have the votes,'' House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on MSNBC yesterday.

Hoyer and a group of 49 self-described fiscally conservative Democrats, known as Blue Dogs, object that the tax credits are not fully paid for by offsetting new tax revenue.

Twenty-five of the Blue Dogs voted for the failed House version of the bailout legislation on Monday. Five of them said yesterday they would continue to support the measure, even with tax provisions that add to the deficit.

John Berger, chief executive officer of Houston-based Standard Renewable Energy Group LLC, which invests in solar and energy efficiency projects, said he would say to House lawmakers that may defeat the bailout, ``I'd like to have your number because I can't cover payroll next week because I can't borrow money from the banks to cover it.''

Revenue Boost

Berger said in a telephone interview yesterday his company's annual revenue of almost $20 million can be increased by five or six times if the tax credits are passed.

Monica McGuire, executive secretary for the R&D Credit Coalition, said her member companies have been forced to look to other countries while the tax benefit lapsed in the United States for the past 10 months.

``Many of our trading partners offer more generous R&D tax incentives that do not lapse 13 times such as the U.S. R&D tax credit,'' McGuire said.

The measure would pay for all of the energy tax breaks and about half of the business and individual so-called extenders by curtailing tax breaks oil companies get for job creation and overseas production, and by ending the deferral of taxes on profits earned in offshore funds.

The measure also includes dozens of other tax breaks large and small, ranging from the abolition of a 39 cent excise tax on makers of wooden arrows designed for children to a multi billion dollar incentive for U.S.-based financial services companies.

Other tax breaks benefit Hollywood producers, stock-car racetrack owners and Virgin Islands rum-makers. Lawmakers also included more than $8 billion in tax-relief intended to help Americans affected by natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods in recent years.

To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Whitten in Washington at dwhitten2@bloomberg.net; Ryan J. Donmoyer in Washington at rdonmoyer@bloomberg.net