Senate Approves Tax Extender Bill with Two Polluter Provisions

WASHINGTON (March 10, 2010) – The bill the Senate approved today on tax extenders contains two harmful environmental provisions.

One extends liquid coal tax credits and another weakens window efficiency standards, according to experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Liquid coal emits nearly twice the global warming pollution as conventional fuel. Even if some of the production emissions are captured and stored, liquid coal may still be no cleaner than conventional fuel. Restoring the liquid coal credits could force taxpayers to heavily subsidize carbon-intensive technologies that harm the environment. This provision should be removed from the legislation.

Meanwhile, another provision would allow less efficient windows to qualify for a tax credit. This could raise program costs by more than $145 million.  The provision should be changed to make sure the higher efficiency standard already in place remains.

The following is a statement from Scott Slesinger, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“These provisions would lead to decreased consumer savings and increased costs to taxpayers, while rolling back energy efficiency standards and increasing subsidies for dirty sources of energy. These two items need to be removed from the bigger bill, which has many provisions. The House should call for a conference on this legislation and remove these provisions, rather than simply approving what the Senate voted on today.”