U.S. Invests $150 Million in Clean Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits — Could It Be the Last Time?

Combined with existing initiatives at the local and state level, the clean energy incentives under the ARRA helped renewable energy capacity in the United States double between 2009 and 2012, according to a report released Tuesday by the Center for American Progress.

Though the report called the 48C Program “one of the ARRA’s most successful programs” and noted that one more investment is scheduled to come out of it before its expiration, it also said there would be “little prospect” for new federal congressional programs to provide incentives for clean energy manufacturing in the future.

“Throughout our history, our most effective economic development initiatives have focused not only on creation of new technologies, but also on providing the infrastructure for those technologies to be developed, produced, and moved across the United States,” according to the report.  “Extreme weather events such as Superstorm Sandy not only underscore the need to do something about our warming planet, but they also highlight the inherent vulnerability of our existing energy infrastructure — and the imperative to strengthen and modernize it.”

U.S. Invests $150 Million in Clean Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits — Could It Be the Last Time?