Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed a tax bill that provides a variety of incentives for renewable energy:
The Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007 includes tax credits and bonds to promote investment in renewable energy production from wind, solar, geothermal, cellulosic ethanol and biofuels, and other critical energy conservation initiatives. The measure passed by a vote of 221-189. ***
The House bill provides for a number of production incentives, including: the long-term extension and modification of renewable energy production tax credits and solar energy and fuel cell investment tax credits; $2 billion of new clean renewable energy bonds for public power providers and electric cooperatives; extension of the present-law deferral on sales of transmission property from electric utilities and their affiliates to a FERC-approved independent transmission company; and the removal of caps on the credit for residential solar property (currently capped at $2,000) and residential fuel cell property (currently capped at $500 per half kilowatt of capacity).
Clean transportation incentives include: a plug-in hybrid vehicle credit; a cellulosic alcohol production credit; the extension of a biodiesel production tax credit and the extension and modification of renewable diesel tax credit; the extension and increase of a alternative refueling stations tax credit; a fringe benefit for bicycle commuters; the modification of depreciation and expensing rules for certain vehicles; and the restructuring of New York Liberty Zone tax credits.
The Senate is considering similar legislation. The full article is here at tax-news.com.
What’s the connection to feminism? This short paragraph sums it up well.
Since environmental problems are linked to labor issues, feminist issues, anti-racism issues, LGBT issues, and peace issues, environmental organizations should be equally diverse.
When women overseas don’t have access to family planning services, that’s an environmental issue. Without it, poverty and overpopulation get worse and these make environmental problems worse. When the “drug war” in Colombia results in the destruction of crops that farmers need to support their families, that’s an environmental issue. When a poor, black community is surrounded in smog and contaminated water, that’s an environmental issue.
Environmental issues, social issues, and economic issues are all connected. All kinds of communities and ecosystems are constantly being attacked from all directions. It only makes sense that we work together as a movement to oppose these attacks and fight for global justice.
Ramin Skibba’s full article is here. For more on the connection between environmental issues and feminism see New Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, and Activism (Rachel Stein ed.) and Karen Warren, Ecological Feminism.
-Bridget Crawford
