GreenEnergyForEarth.com – Alternative Energy News and Green Products

Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine and two-time former presidential candidate, writes in his “Fact and Comment” editorial on president-elect Barack Obama’s $150 billion alternative energy program.  During the campaign Obama stated that he would propose that the US government spend $15 billion per year for 10 years.  Forbes posits that Obama’s big initiative will be “some sort of cap-and-trade scheme for carbon dioxide emissions.”  He says that the cost of carbon permits will be rolled into the prices for goods and services resulting in “a sort of energy version of the value-added tax.”  As such, it would be a regressive tax.  He claims that the fact that tax credits aren’t set for long periods make it difficult for investors in alternative energy.  The recent tax credit legislation extended the tax credit for solar energy for 8 years, but as readers of GreenEnergyForEarth.com know, the wind energy tax credits were only extended for 1 year, although hopefully they will receive a longer extension during the next Congress.  Forbes doesn’t expect Obama to cut back on ethanol subsidies even though ethanol production for fuel is inefficient and has an adverse effect on the cost of corn-derived food.  He expects Obama to quietly allow more offshore drilling and passage of legislation for construction of nuclear facilities.  We will have to wait until 2009 to see if Forbes’ predictions are correct as Obama has made it clear that he is not telegraphing his moves until January 20.