[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 13, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5440-S5441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. LINCOLN (for herself and Ms. Collins):
  S. 1030. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to 
eliminate the reduction in the credit rate for certain facilities 
producing electricity from renewable resources; to the Committee on 
Finance.
  Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I have come to my colleagues today, 
having come down to the floor last week, when I came to the Senate 
floor to announce a new plan to give working families and businesses 
the tools they need to succeed during this current economic crisis we 
are in. I come today also to add to my Arkansas plan a package of tax 
cuts and Tax Code simplification measures designed to move Arkansas and 
our State's hard-working families forward. Together, these tax measures 
will allow working families and small businesses to get ahead and 
emerge from the economic crisis stronger and more competitive.
  We have a lot of small businesses, hard-working families down in 
Arkansas; entrepreneurs who unfortunately feel as though during this 
crisis they are not getting much out of Washington. We want to change 
that attitude. We want to make sure they are getting our support and 
that we as the Government are creating an atmosphere and an environment 
where they can be successful.
  We are also going to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship to 
create new jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign oil and reduce the 
burden on working families and small businesses by simplifying our Tax 
Code. It is way too complicated these days. We have created too much of 
a complicated code that people can't use it for its intended purposes, 
and that is, obviously, to encourage good, healthy businesses to thrive 
and to be competitive.
  Last week, I introduced a number of legislative measures that will 
allow working families and small businesses to emerge from the economic 
crisis stronger and more competitive than before. This week, my 
Arkansas plan focuses on encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship to 
create new jobs here at home and lessen our dependence on foreign oil. 
All of us want to be able to be more independent. We want to make sure 
we are creating jobs here, but we also want to know that, globally, we 
are more independent as a country and that we are not seeing that 
dependence on imported oil coming from other places.
  Yesterday, I introduced the USA Jobs Act of 2009, which offers a new 
research and development bonus incentive to companies that both 
research and manufacture their products in the United States. Before, 
in the stimulus package, we extended the research and development tax 
credit to encourage more research and development of new ideas and new 
products, new methodologies so we could create jobs from those. We also 
need to make sure we are not sending those new ideas and that new 
research somewhere else on the globe to be able to be produced or 
manufactured. We want to incentivize that it stays right here at home.
  Our Nation faces record unemployment, with more than 540,000 
Americans put out of work last month alone and 90,000 job losses in 
Arkansas. It is more important now than ever before that we encourage 
the creation and preservation of American jobs. My bill provides a new 
job tax credit for manufacturers that do a substantial portion of their 
research and manufacturing right here at home in the United States. 
This new tax credit will encourage greater domestic production, which 
would, in turn, lead to the creation of more American jobs.
  Today, I am focused on a series of alternative energy and 
conservation proposals as well. My first bill provides an even playing 
field for all renewable energy production. The Federal Tax Code 
currently offers an income tax credit for the production of electricity 
produced from renewable energy resources, but not all resources are 
treated the same. Under current law, some energy resources receive a 
higher level credit than others, and as a result, certain new renewable 
energy technologies have a more difficult time finding the necessary 
investment capital they need to start that process of investing in new 
technology and getting it to the marketplace in a reasonable way so it 
is cost-effective.
  These are critical ideas that exist out there. We need to make sure 
everybody is at the table. When we look at renewable energy, we see 
that there are a multitude of great ideas out there, but getting those 
ideas to the table and then out into the marketplace is a critical part 
of that journey. If we don't make sure everyone has that same benefit 
with their ideas and technologies and being able to get out there, if 
it is not a fair playing field, then we are going to lose multiple 
opportunities.
  I hope we will look forward and not backward in terms of how we are 
incentivizing this renewable energy. So much of what we see in terms of 
complications or challenges small businesses face in finding investment 
capital is particularly problematic with the pursuit of renewable 
energy opportunities in my home State of Arkansas, where biomass is a 
predominant renewable resource but only gets half the tax credit that 
many other resources receive.
  That is ridiculous. We have a tremendous resource right here and 
available to us--not just in Arkansas but in many States in our 
country. It can play a tremendous role in lifting our dependence on 
foreign oil and finding renewable sources of energy.
  My proposal would level the playing field for all energy resources by 
increasing the value of the credit to a full credit level for those 
resources that currently receive only a partial credit. It certainly 
makes sense not only in the sense that there are certain resources that 
exist today that are moving forward in their technology, but there are 
also resources down the road. It is amazing to me to see what

[[Page S5441]]

scientists are doing, even with things like algae, to be able to 
produce oil, and looking at how we can use our agricultural 
byproducts--a host of things, any of that woody biomass that we can 
begin to put to good use in making energy and be less dependent on 
imported oil.
  Also, I am introducing legislation today that provides long-term 
certainty for producers and consumers of biofuels. Currently, the U.S. 
Tax Code includes credits to encourage the production of biodiesel and 
renewable diesel, which are proven alternative fuels that will help us 
lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Every barrel of biofuel that we 
produce is a barrel of imported oil we would not have to import. These 
incentives have been extended on a short-term basis in recent years and 
are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
  When we see all of these great ideas and we see people who are 
willing to invest their capital and their time and energy and resources 
into moving these industries to the marketplace, and in a reasonable, 
cost-effective way they can then integrate it into the marketplace, it 
takes resources. But it takes predictability in our Tax Code as well, 
knowing they are going to be able to depend on a certain tax treatment 
over a certain period of time that allows them to access that capital 
in the capital market.
  If these credits were allowed to expire, these new technologies in 
renewable fuels would be priced significantly higher than petroleum 
diesel and, as a result, would not be competitive in the fuels 
marketplace. Biofuel producers and consumers in our State need the 
certainty that these economic incentives provide and help to sustain 
this new market.
  We cannot move forward in changing our mindset and our marketplace 
from an old energy economy to a new one if we don't embrace the idea 
that we have to produce some predictability for these new emerging 
industries and fuels in a way they can--particularly in these difficult 
economic times--access the capital they need to move forward with the 
ideas and development and the production of all of these great new 
ideas that exist out there.
  My proposal would provide a 10-year extension of the credits through 
2018 to provide a stable environment for the creation of a strong 
domestic biofuels industry.
  I want to highlight a bill I introduced a few weeks ago with Senators 
Roberts, Snowe, Cantwell, and Collins that would allow electricity from 
biomass produced onsite to qualify for the section 45 renewable 
electricity production tax credit.
  According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 2005, the 
industry produced 28.5 million megawatt hours of biomass-based 
electricity, which avoided the use of more than 200 million barrels of 
oil. There it is, plain and simple--what we can be doing with an 
industry that has available to them--the biomass--from byproducts and 
from other woody products that are there, which may be discarded or 
unusable--to be able to produce electricity from a renewable source.
  The use of biomass electricity, whether produced onsite or purchased 
from a utility, has the same positive impact of reducing fossil fuel 
consumption and should be encouraged. That is exactly what we want to 
do. We want to encourage these types of activities and what we can do 
in terms of creating new and innovative ideas with renewable energy.
  Later this week I plan to introduce a bill to also encourage 
workforce training and development. Together, I think these bills will 
create jobs at home. They will help strengthen our economy and reduce 
our dependence on foreign oil. These are all priorities I think each 
one of the Members of this body seek to achieve. I, for one, decided to 
put together a plan that I think is particularly good for my State, 
with a series of different types of bills that I am introducing--last 
week, this week, and next week--in a way that I think can be productive 
for my State. I think most Senators will find that these are tools that 
will be just as effective for their States as well. I encourage them to 
take a look at what we are doing.
  Next week, I will complete the rollout of our Arkansas plan by 
introducing reform measures to simplify the Tax Code and reduce the 
burden on Americans, and particularly Arkansas's working families and 
businesses by working to build a tax structure that is fair and 
equitable for all Americans.
  Again, I encourage my colleagues to take a look at these commonsense 
measures to see how they will benefit their own constituents. I work 
hard in the Senate to be pragmatic and look for solutions that are good 
for everybody and, more important, that are focused on the issues that 
are important to us as a country, like getting our economy back on 
track, making sure Americans can keep jobs, and for those who have lost 
jobs, we can put back to work, with the new ideas that we know 
Americans are so very capable of.
  We must make our Nation's working families and our small businesses a 
top priority. The Arkansas plan does just that. I will continue to 
fight to bring our families the relief they need and our business 
owners the tools they require to invest and grow and be competitive in 
the global marketplace that we have been begging so longingly for over 
the years. We need to make sure Government is going to create that 
environment where they can do just that--invest, grow, and be 
competitive.
                                 ______