Earth Equity News

White House Awards $23 Billion in Tax Credits for Clean Energy Developers. By John Collins Rudolph, NYTimes, January 8, 2010. "President Obama announced on Friday the award of $2.3 billion in tax credits for clean energy manufacturing -- part of a broader push by his administration to stimulate job growth during the highest period of sustained unemployment in decades... The Labor Department reported on Friday that nonfarm payrolls shed 85,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate held steady at 10%, the highest level of joblessness since the early 1980s. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the tax credits would spur an additional $5 billion of private capital investment in the clean energy manufacturing sector. The tax credits are worth up to 30% of the cost of each project, resulting in a total investment of about $7.7 billion. Funding for the tax credits will come from the $787 billion economic recovery package approved by Congress in early 2009. Tax credits were awarded to 183 projects in 43 states, and will create more than 17,000 jobs in clean technology manufacturing, the White House said. The projects must be in service by 2014, but approximately 30% of them will be completed by 2010, the administration estimated."