10 percent tax credit for purchase of wood pellet stoves in bipartisan legislation ???

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phil san

Member
Jul 15, 2008
141
South Shore, MA
The Biomass tax credit appears to have been passed within the House bailout. Anyone see if the pellet stove credit is contained?

i.e.
Monday, September 22, 2008



WASHINGTON, DC – United States Senator John Sununu (R-NH) today (9/22) announced that he would co-sponsor a proposed bipartisan amendment to extend key tax incentives to encourage the development of clean forms of renewable energy including solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass. The proposed amendment to the “Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008” (HR 6049) includes Sununu’s provision to provide a 10 percent tax credit for the purchase of energy-efficient wood pellet stoves and is expected to be introduced on Tuesday morning.

“We need to encourage renewable energy with strong tax incentives, and I am pleased that this bill includes my 10 percent tax credit for high efficiency wood pellet stoves,” said Sununu. “I have consistently fought to expand renewable energy tax incentives, and this is the second time that the Senate has considered our bipartisan proposal. Equally important, this amendment will be paid for by eliminating unnecessary subsidies for oil and gas companies
 
phil san said:
The Biomass tax credit appears to have been passed within the House bailout. Anyone see if the pellet stove credit is contained?
It's anyone's guess. I couldn't believe what kind of crap was in it. There's stuff for American Samoa aid, manufacturers in Puerto Rico, Indians, railroads, race track owners, wool product manufacturers, film & TV production companies and a subsidy for a company that makes wooden arrows for kids bow & arrow sets. Of course they're all harmed by the financial crisis so they need relief. Did you see your name there? :-(

The final bill hadn't made it online yet so I can't tell what was added (I don't expect anything was deleted) to this from the first version. The whole freakin country is a special interest group. sheesh!

<end rant>
 
Panhandler said:
I saw the one about arrows. There was one about commuting on bicycles, also.
Well it just makes sense that wooden arrow makers are included. After all, the aluminum and carbon fiber ones use more oil and so are less "green". We want to be responsible when bailing out companies and spreading the pork around don't we?

Missed the one about commuting bicycles though.

That just gets me started on HOV lanes in California letting hybrids in regardless of # of passengers. I mean, the whole idea of the lanes is to encourage car pooling to reduce gas consumption. So you let a hybrid in that lane tooling along at 55 when he might be stuck over in the regular traffic doing 15 or 20. Guess where the hybrid electric kicks in? Over there in the slow lane. By letting him into the HOV lane he burns gas instead of electricity that he'd be using in the slow clogged lanes. Now that makes sense too.
 
Yepp, there is a tax credit in the bailout bill...check it out at

http://senateconservatives.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/bailouttext.pdf

Under the part....SEC. 302. CREDIT FOR NONBUSINESS ENERGY PROPERTY.

ROFL...wouldn't you know it...it appears that if you bought your pellet stove before the bill passed...YOU DON"T GET YOURS!!!!....LMFAO, don't know whether to laugh or cry.... :question:

Regards..
Ossy
 
Seems like the credit applies if it was placed in service after 12/31/07 and before 1/1/2009 ...
 
Am I misreading this? It seems to say that the credit is only if you place the stove/insert/whatever into service between Jan-1-2008 and Dec-31-2008, Or AFTER Dec-31-2009?

So either install it this year or after 2009. No credit if you install DURING 2009? WTF?


SEC. 302. CREDIT FOR NONBUSINESS ENERGY PROPERTY.
(a) EXTENSION OF CREDIT.—Section 25C(g) is
amended by striking ‘‘placed in service after December 31,
2007’’ and inserting ‘‘placed in service—
‘‘(1) after December 31, 2007, and before Jan
uary 1, 2009, or
‘‘(2) after December 31, 2009.’’.
(b) QUALIFIED BIOMASS FUEL PROPERTY.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 25C(d)(3) is amend
ed—
(A) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of sub
paragraph (D),
(B) by striking the period at the end of
subparagraph (E) and inserting ‘‘, and’’, and
(C) by adding at the end the following new
subparagraph:
‘‘(F) a stove which uses the burning of bio
mass fuel to heat a dwelling unit located in the
United States and used as a residence by the
taxpayer, or to heat water for use in such a
dwelling unit, and which has a thermal effi
ciency rating of at least 75 percent.’’.
(2) BIOMASS FUEL.—Section 25C(d) is amend
ed by adding at the end the following new para
graph:
‘‘(6) BIOMASS FUEL.—The term ‘biomass fuel’
means any plant-derived fuel available on a renew
able or recurring basis, including agricultural crops
and trees, wood and wood waste and residues (in
cluding wood pellets), plants (including aquatic
plants), grasses, residues, and fibers.’’.
(c) MODIFICATION OF WATER HEATER REQUIRE
MENTS.—Section 25C(d)(3)(E) is amended by inserting
‘‘or a thermal efficiency of at least 90 percent’’ after
‘‘0.80’’.
 
Section 302 in the linked proposal has nothing to do with pellet stoves or energy. It is related to employer compensation blah blah blah. Am I reading this wrong or looking in the wrong place?
 
They wont pass a tax credit bill until most everyone around the country has already bought a stove.
 
thesyguy said:
Section 302 in the linked proposal has nothing to do with pellet stoves or energy. It is related to employer compensation blah blah blah. Am I reading this wrong or looking in the wrong place?

it is section 302, of the act, but on pages 214-218 of the document
 
MainePellethead said:
They wont pass a tax credit bill until most everyone around the country has already bought a stove.

it is passed, and signed. it is part of the bailout bill. AIG gets a few billion, you get a few bucks
 
Our trade org will pretty much tell us when things are actually passed and in effect. They have lobbyists :)

We'll pass it on once it is in stone. I know there is already a pellet thing, but our org is trying to fix that language about the efficiency since the default efficiency is up there anyway.

As far as what passes for stimulus, I really do think a lot of people take a small minded approach to this. Maybe one does not believe in government, which is fine...except that you use it every day. But once (thousands of years ago!) we started down the path of tribal and village behavior, the die was cast. Ranting about it now seems silly.

Everyone has their sacred cows, etc.......but I honestly see EVERYTHING that others laugh at as REAL stimulus......

Examples:
Contraception - hey, big notice, sex education, family planning and all this stuff is under the heading of "Health Care", an expense that is right now destroying our country!

Bicycle commuting - I don't think this should need explanation. Lots of people up here do it year-round. It saves traffic, roads, pollution (therefore disease), landscapes, makes people healthier (there is that Health Care thing again).

Education - Again, I hardly imagine that folks need to know that higher pay comes with better education. So does more innovation - which improves the lot of ALL of us, and allows those educated people to pay more taxes, and lead healthier life styles, etc.

I could go on, but there is definitely a case to be made for LONG TERM buttressing of our economy as opposed to just giving people checks....which certainly did not work last time. That only encourages the same behavior (CONSUMERS...instead of CITIZENS) as before.

Even the dropped Hollywood tax credits make sense.....well, as much as many other things! The fact is that the entertainment industry puts the bread on the tables for MANY millions of Americans and brings in vast sums to our economy from all over the world. Is that so much different than giving tax credits to oil companies, etc.

My point is that a case can be made FOR or AGAINST any of these efforts, but by and large - IF you are going to try to stimulate the economy, many of these efforts make as much sense as anything else.

On the other hand, you have the opposition saying to just lower taxes for the very wealthy and corporations and everything will automatically fix itself. I pay VERY high taxes, but can certainly assure you that saving 5% on my tax bill will not help either me nor my country very much......although it may result in a slightly larger bank balance.

This stuff will be debated for 100 years........but I look at the large picture as this. The problems are VASTLY larger than anything government can fix. It's like your house burning down with no insurance. There is no easy fix. The giant ripoff is to the tune of 30 to 70 trillion dollars....that is what will be lost from our pockets due to many factors. Based on that, it means very little to argue about 800 billion, or more accurately, a few hundred million in the bill.

It may work, it may not - most likely it will work a little bit against the tidal wave (peeing in the ocean, etc.) - but, IMHO, whether we are sunk for 50 trillion or 51 trillion is hardly the time to complain....
 
I am just glad we have a president who takes our need to reduce our dependence on foreign energy seriously and looks at including items such as pellet stoves as a way to do this. I have a feeling $5.00 a gallon gas will be happening again if we don't. I saw an article where Iraq wants OPEC to curb production again so oil can be at $70.00 + a barrel and I have a feeling that if our economy takes off again, oil prices will certainly go through the roof. Anybody remember anything about Iraq paying for the war with oil money? Not only have we not seen a nickel of our tax money returned but they are now trying to raise oil prices in the middle of a recession.
 
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