The Federal Energy Bill emerged from conference committee this week and passed the House by a large margin today.

As expected, it has massive subsidies and tax breaks for traditional energy companies and no plans for addressing rising energy prices, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, tackling climate change, or any of the other crucial issues facing our energy system.

Some of the good stuff for renewable energy that was in the Senate version of the bill, such as the national renewable energy standard, was stripped out. But still, there are a few things tucked into the bill that will benefit wind, if we want to look at it optimistically:

1) A 2 year renewal for the production tax credit for wind energy. The PTC has it's flaws, but it's hugely important to the wind industry.

2) Clean Energy Bonds - a new idea that will benefit electric cooperatives planning wind projects.

Also, here's a handy summary from Stoel Rives of the tax provisions in the bill:

http://www.stoel.com/resources/articles/incometax/tax_015.shtm

Well, it's about to be official. President Bush is set to sign the Federal Energy Bill today.

Read all 1,700+ pages here-

Full Conference Report:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/0205_Energy/confere...nergyConf_report.pdf

Section by Section:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.6:

Conference Report Summary by Fuel
http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Is...View&IssueItem_ID=22