Take Action to Salvage the Solar Tax Credit!
The Investment Tax Credit (ITC), the tax credit that has allowed homeowners and businesses to deduct 30 percent of the cost of a solar array from their taxes, is set to expire at the end of 2016 for residential solar and be reduced to 10 percent for commercial solar power. However, the Senate is considering a series of tax credit extensions—and extending the ITC could be among them. But to give it a chance Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is asking that people write their legislators to support it and has created an online campaign to do so.
Extending the ITC could lead to continued job growth and a lot more solar installed across the U.S. But with a Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives Legislators may not opt to extend the tax credit—at all, even though solar is proving popular in both red and blue states. Previously this year, legislation has been introduced to extend the credit, but it has not yet been successful. Today SEIA President Rhone Recsh made an impassioned plea to urge Senators to include the ITC in the tax credit extender legislation claiming, “The next 48 hours could decide the fate of solar energy in America!”
“Momentum is building in the U.S. Senate for legislation to extend a long list of important, but expiring tax credits,” Resch said. “We’re fighting hard to make solar energy part of the bill, but we can’t do it alone. This very well could be our only chance this year to get the hugely-successful solar ITC extended.”
The solar advocacy organization has given the ITC much of the credit for helping to create 150,000 jobs over the past few years, growing the industry to more than 174,000 jobs. That means solar power now employs more people than the entire coal industry does.
“If allowed to expire at the end of 2016, as scheduled, many industry experts are predicting ‘dire consequences’—with U.S. job losses totaling in the tens of thousands—and up to 90 percent of all solar companies going out of business,” Resch contended.
“What can you do to help? Most importantly, send an email to your two U.S. Senators, urging them to contact Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) to make certain that solar energy is included in any tax extenders legislation moving forward this year,” Resch urged.
The form is easy to fill out and advocacy groups like SEIA are finding email campaigns are becoming more effective in swaying legislators’ opinions more and more, so take a couple minutes to support an extension of the ITC today.
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