President Bush might be talking about alternative energy, but he's not giving many types of green energy sources a financial boost. Bush's $2.9 trillion budget proposal released Monday includes no funding for geothermal technology, a prominent industry in Nevada, or for hydropower research and development. Bush's proposal also trims funding for wind energy to $40 million, nearly a 10 percent drop from last year's request. The 2008 request keeps funding levels stagnant for solar energy development: $148.3 million. But some alternative energy industries are winners under the president's budget plan. Biomass, hydrogen technology and carbon sequestration at coal-fired power plants would see increases in funding.

Democrats said the legislation could produce as much as $15 billion in revenue. Most of that money would pay to promote renewable fuels such as solar and wind power, alternative fuels including ethanol and biodiesel and incentives for conservation.

Despite a short-term spike in the cost of wind power, data from a recent Emerging Energy Research study shows wind energy is nearly cost-competitive. The Comparative Costs of Energy report focuses on the European market but can be applied to the U.S. market as well, said William Ambrose, president of EER. Much of the study was based on global trends in the industry, he said.

While a cap on carbon dioxide emissions remains a Holy Grail for environmental groups, rather than pursuing one Congress may take interim, and less politically painful, steps to curb global warming. One of the likeliest options would require electric utilities, which account for about 40 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in the U.S., to produce a percentage of their electricity with “climate-friendly” renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass or even tidal power.

In theory, the idea is simple. The consumer pays a third party to remove a quantity of carbon (in the form of a greenhouse gas) equal to what he or she emits. But how voluntary carbon offsets actually work is unclear at best, and potentially fraudulent at worst, say experts. The problem: No current certification or monitoring system has any teeth, and there is no easy way to confirm that offsetting companies are doing what they promise. Now, various organizations are scrambling to provide standards for what experts call a fragmented market with a product of drastically varying quality.

North Dakotans can’t count on the wind blowing every day, but extending a federal tax credit for five years would put a steady breeze in the sails of the state’s booming wind industry, Rep. Earl Pomeroy said Monday. Pomeroy, D-N.D., visited the DMI Industries manufacturing plant in West Fargo to announce a bipartisan bill to extend the production tax credit for wind and other renewable energy projects until 2014. “This legislation … we think produces a very significant level of stability, providing the assurance that those contemplating moving in this area are going to be able to complete their projects and invest in future projects,” he said.

When a group of passionate windmill opponents took their message before Somerset County commissioners, Commissioner Brad Cober said the county can do little to stop turbine development. But he had this bit of advice for wind-power opponents: Urge elected officials to stop federal tax credits for wind power.

Wind-power companies received an early Christmas gift over the weekend when Congress tucked a provision that extended tax credits for green power inside a year-end spending bill. The 1.9 cent-per-kilowatt-hour tax credit, which was to expire at the end of 2007, was extended an additional year, through 2008. Wind turbines are most prevalent in Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Oregon. Locally, wind-power companies have eyed sites in Herkimer, Oneida and Madison counties for development.

SAN FRANCISCO - Jill Cody used to feel guilty whenever she drove her car or flew on an airplane. She worried about pumping heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. But the San Jose professor found a way to ease her conscience. She paid a San Francisco company called TerraPass to offset emissions from her car and air travel by investing in wind power and reducing farm pollution.

In its last hours of GOP control, Congress passed a raft of bills big and small, most significantly a sweeping bill reviving expired tax breaks, extending trade benefits for developing countries and protecting doctors from a big cut in Medicare payments.........Extends through 2008 various energy provisions now set to expire at the end of 2007, including a tax credit for electricity produced from renewable resources, and a tax credit for new energy-efficient homes.

The reasons for the proposed sale, after just 18 months of ownership, were not clear, although many analysts said that it could be in response to huge uncertainty surrounding the wind power industry.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats are targeting billions of dollars in oil company tax breaks for quick repeal next year. A broader energy proposal that would boost alternative energy sources and conservation is expected to be put off until later. Hot-button issues such as a tax on the oil industry's windfall profits or sharp increases in automobile fuel economy probably will not gain much ground given the narrow Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in an outline of priorities over the first 100 hours of the next Congress in January, promises to begin a move toward greater energy independence "by rolling back the multibillion dollar subsidies for Big Oil."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The lawmaker set to head the U.S. Senate called on Wednesday for more incentives to expand geothermal power production, and accused the White House of being slow to support renewable energy. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who will be the chamber's majority leader once Democrats take control of Congress in 2007, said U.S. energy companies need more incentives to produce geothermal power, which uses heat pockets beneath the earth's surface to turn water to steam, powering turbines and generating electricity.

“There will be an extreme shift in attitude toward energy policy, especially in the House, during the next session under Democratic leadership,” said Richard Powers, a partner with Washington, D.C., law firm Venable LLP. Powers predicts Democrats will try to repeal some of the tax breaks and benefits big energy and oil companies got from last summer’s Energy Policy Act, while pushing new tax credits and regulations promoting solar, wind, and ethanol.

Want wind power? Just walk to the nearest Whole Foods and buy a Wind Power card. Whole Foods, one of the nation’s largest wind power purchasers, will sell wind power cards beginning today. The cards, priced at $5 and $15, will be issued by Renewable Choice Energy, the same Boulder company that sells wind power to Whole Foods. “This represents a brand new step in allowing a point of entry for any residential customer around the country to start getting used to renewable energy,” said Renewable Choice CEO Quayle Hodek. For $15, a customer can buy a wind power card worth 750 kilowatt hours - enough to power an average home for a month. For $5, a customer can buy a card for 250 kilowatt hours.

The following is a transcript of remarks by President Bush on energy: St. Louis Convention Center, St. Louis, Missouri

Carbon offset schemes are designed to neutralise the effects of the carbon dioxide our activities produce by investing in projects that cut emissions elsewhere. They work through the rapidly growing trade in carbon credits, each worth the equivalent of a tonne of carbon. Offset companies typically buy carbon credits from projects that plant trees or encourage a switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. They sell credits to individuals and companies who want to go "carbon neutral". Some climate experts say offsets are dangerous because they dissuade people from changing their behaviour.

Green consumers and businesses who want to neutralise their carbon emissions face being ripped off by unscrupulous operators who exploit the growing market in carbon offset schemes, a Guardian investigation has revealed. The surge in interest in such schemes, which invest millions of pounds in forestry and clean energy projects in the developing world, has created a lucrative market in carbon, which is unregulated and subject to little scrutiny. Campaigners and analysts say independent standards are urgently needed to protect consumers and to ensure the promised carbon savings are delivered. Francis Sullivan, a carbon offset expert who led attempts by banking group HSBC to neutralise its emissions, said: “There will be individuals and companies out there who think they’re doing the right thing but they’re not. I am sure that people are buying offsets in this unregulated market that are not credible. I am sure there are people buying nothing more than hot air.”

Jack Manning got rich off a federal housing credit. Now he wants to get richer off an energy credit..... Now Manning, 58, is chasing his next windfall. To pull it off he will need fortune and friends in abundance. He is raising up to $400 million to harness the wind for energy and the tax code for subsidies. On these wind farms, each dotted with multiple million-dollar towers topped with giant, perfectly curved propellers, government loot is as much a driving force as moving air. But the federal tax credit for wind energy is set to expire at the end of next year. Gulp.

For wind developers, the Production Tax Credit (PTC) can either make or break a project. In Lempster, New Hampshire, the timely development of a 24-megawatt (MW) wind farm hinges on the probability of it coming online before December 31, 2007, when the PTC expires. Because a comprehensive review of the project was approved by the New Hampshire site evaluation committee, it could take Community Energy Inc. — the developer overseeing the Lempster wind farm — up to nine months to start construction. And if the PTC is not renewed before the expiration date, there’s a chance the project could stall for much longer.