Earth Equity News-May 5, 2008

Note to Readers: The Newsfeed will be intermittent this week due to staff presence at a conference for environmental journalists in Mali.

Big Oil's Big-Time Friends. Editorial, NYT, May 5, 2008. "Listen to almost any politician... and you'll hear that the fight against global warming cannot be won without cleaner technologies... Yet these same politicians are on the verge of allowing modest but vital [renewable energy] tax credits to expire... These credits are necessary... When [they] disappear, investments shrivel. The production tax credit for wind energy has been allowed to expire three times. In each case, new investment dropped by more than 70 percent. The credits for wind and solar expire at the end of this year, so action now is important... Mr. Bush and Senate Republicans bear a heavy [part of the blame]. The House approved, as part of last year's energy bill, a multiyear extension... while insisting -- under its pay-as-you-go rules -- that they be offset by rescinding an equivalent amount in tax credits for the oil companies. The oil companies... screamed, Mr. Bush lofted veto threats, and the Senate, by a one-vote margin, refused to go along. Senator John McCain... missed that crucial vote."