The U.S. House is cutting exactly the wrong thing from the federal budget!
This week the U.S. House of Representatives is fighting a pitched battle over HR1, the fiscal 2011 spending bill. The House majority is proposing budget cuts in the order of $61 billion, and appears intent on cutting the foundations from a program that helps finance solar projects around the country.
The program is the Dept. of Energy Loan Guarantee Program (LGP). It exists to help low-carbon energy projects meet the challenge of obtaining affordable long-term commercial financing, and does this by underwriting large private loans. To date, the LGP has committed over $25 billion in loan guarantees, securing some $40 billion of private investment. The projects covered will create almost four gigawatts of clean energy, three manufacturing facilities, and tens of thousands of jobs across 19 states.
As currently written, HR1 is likely to kill more nascent clean energy projects than the LGP has helped launch. In fact, the bill will probably kill all clean energy projects with pending loan guarantee applications, causing huge job losses. In addition, the dozens of companies that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in solar projects in good faith reliance on existing law would probably lose their investment and face possible bankruptcy.
Of course, the nation must face up to its fiscal challenges and reduce budget deficits; no-one denies this. But the projects enabled by the LGP bring great benefits to the economy and the job market, as well as cleaner, greener power to the grid. Every one of these projects has been identified by the Dept. of Energy as viable, creditworthy and much needed by our power grid.
When cutting expenditures in times of fiscal restraint, the place to make cuts is not where good jobs are being created and from where our energy future will spring.
Please send a message to your U.S. Representative and make him or her understand why HR1 must not be allowed to kill the LGP.
How to send a message:
1) You can go to the Solar Nation advocacy site here (http://capwiz.com/re-action/go/HR1) and just enter your ZIP code (simplest way).
2) You can copy and paste the message below into the URL at the foot of the page to send it to your U.S. Representative.
Message begins here:
The fiscal 2011 spending bill (HR1) is targeting many areas of government spending for swingeing cuts. One area that will be particularly devastated is the Dept. of Energy Loan Guarantee Program. This program has been responsible for securing $40 billion in private investment and tens of thousands of clean energy jobs in 19 states. It stands to generate even more projects and jobs in solar energy in future, but HR1 has cut funding for the program. While we know that budgets must be trimmed, these cuts will halt viable projects that promise many more thousands of jobs in solar power production.
Solar project developers have negotiated in good faith, spending thousands, sometimes millions of dollars to meet the exacting DOE requirements for loan guarantees. For some companies, this is the only source of financing available until financial markets recover. If HR1 is not modified, most will need to lay workers off; some may face bankruptcy.
When cutting expenditures in times of fiscal restraint, the place to make cuts is not where good jobs are being created and from where our energy future will spring. I urge you to restore these solar project funds by striking sections 1425 and 3001 from HR1.
URL to find your U.S. Representative: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml