On April 10th the U.S. Senate passed, with an overwhelming majority, the Clean Energy Stimulus Act of 2008. The bill, coauthored by Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John Ensign (R-NV), extends numerous renewable energy credits and incentives for at least another year. The bill, introduced on April 3rd, passed with an 88-8 vote count. In a press release Friday, Sen. Pete Domenici, ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, said the extension of the tax credits “will ensure that vital work on clean energy technologies like wind, solar and biomass will continue.”

The bill, which was tacked on to the Housing Act as an amendment, extends the residential solar credit for one year. It also extends the commercial Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for eight more years until 2016. The ITC is a tax credit for investment in commercial solar and fuel cell projects. Yet perhaps the bill’s most landmark measure is the removal of the residential $2,000 tax credit cap, which is big news for homeowners looking to install solar power and/or heating systems. It also includes, among other incentives, extending credits for energy-efficient appliances, such as refrigerators or dishwashers, to those purchased between 2008 and 2010.

However, three similar bills have all tried and failed in the last year. The other bills, all of which originated in the House and were rejected by the Senate, went down due to controversy over sources of funding. Unlike the Senate version, the House proposed offsetting the bill’s costs by reducing tax subsidies already in place for the oil and gas industry. The newly passed Senate bill does not address any funding sources. And this is where it may very well receive opposition in the House. The House will be very hesitant to pass the bill without some means of offsetting costs and, based on this bill’s predecessors, are determined to garnish the oil and gas industry. In defense of the Senate’s choice to ignore funding in their energy bill, Sen. Domenici stated that “these energy tax credits [will] stimulate the economy, create jobs, and help America become less dependent on foreign oil…it is therefore unnecessary to offset the tax credits, since the end result will be a benefit to our economy and energy security.”

The Senate’s clean energy bill certainly faces opposition, not only in the House of Representatives, but also in the White House. President Bush had already threatened to veto the preceding bills due to the toll on the oil and gas industry–perhaps the true impetus for the Senate’s skirting around the funding issue. Yet, all these hurdles are no reason to diminish the significance of this bill passing the Senate. In an election year Democrats are unlikely to back down from the issue and a bill originating in and passing the Senate, who’d voted three prior attempts down, is a huge step. This passage symbolizes a dedication in both houses of Congress to get an energy bill passed and signed and it seems improbable that the credits will expire. In an interview with Solar Industry, Monique Hanis, director of communications for the Solar Energy Industries Association, said that passage of the bill in the Senate “was a strong signal to the white house that renewable energy should be part of the stimulus package” and “it was really big progress for us, and we’re optimistic. It was a huge hurdle.”