Cantwell, a member of the Senate Energy Committee, helped push through Congress a two-year extension of a production tax credit for wind energy, which helped seal the current Vestas deal and provide jobs at the Port, Clark said. The credit was to expire on Dec. 31, 2005. The extension provides a 1.9 cent per kilowatt hour tax credit to the wind farm owner -- which passes the savings to ratepayers -- for electricity generated with turbines over the first 10 years of a project -- a break that has been crucial to wind farm development, port officials said. Cantwell said she also has proposed a bill for the development of clean energy that would ensure the tax credit until 2015. The lengthy extension would provide more predictability for investment and allow the wind power industry to grow, she said.

LUDLOW— When it comes to addressing the worldwide problem of greenhouse gas emissions, Okemo Mountain Resort Owner Tim Mueller said, you've got to start somewhere. That's why Mueller and wife, Diane, are purchasing enough renewable energy certificates from Sterling Planet, a retail renewable energy provider, to power all the electrical needs of their three ski resorts, which include Okemo, Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado and Mount Sunapee Resort in New Hampshire.

Bingaman said he had supported tax credits aimed at developing wind power plants. With those credits ending in 2007, he said companies developing those operations were getting wary about starting new projects. The senator said he would propose extending those credits.

Whenever energy prices rise, the government promises to subsidize oil alternatives," said Jerry Taylor, an energy expert with the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that opposes government intervention in economies. "It's flushing money down the toilet."

Barclays, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, and Swiss Re have all committed themselves to it. Not to mention Leonardo DiCaprio, Dido and Pearl Jam. Carbon neutrality is the latest game in town, and carbon offsets are becoming the "it" commodity.

Quayle Hodek is sitting on a gold mine of green power. He is the keeper of valuable "wind energy credits" for customers who want the electricity powering their homes and businesses to come from wind farms sprinkled across the nation.

The final sticking point came over Grassley's insistence that the pension bill contain a package of tax cut extensions such as the research-and-development tax credit, a credit for hiring workers off welfare, and a credit to promote wind energy. Frist and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-California) wanted to use those tax credits to entice Senate Democrats to vote for their permanent estate tax cut. Grassley tried to force a showdown Thursday night, calling a public meeting of negotiators and daring House Republicans to vote to strip out the tax measures. Instead, House Republicans boycotted the meeting. Then GOP leaders effectively shut down negotiations and took the pension bill to the House floor without the tax measures, infuriating Grassley.

Registry will reduce massive certifications and legal contracts in correlation with voluntary emissions trading in hopes of increasing trade

ANN ARBOR, Mich., —A growing portion of U.S. states' electricity is being provided by renewable energy, according to a new report written by a University of Michigan professor.

The PTC, however, for all its transparency, simplicity and success, is as often criticised in private by wind industry leaders as it is praised in public by the lobbyists charged with keeping it alive. To borrow the quietly spoken words of a CEO with two decades in the business: "It's like a drug addiction. We all know it's bad for us. We all know life would be better off without it in the long run. But we can't find a way to get off it." That sense of impotence could be changing.

State programs to promote the development of renewable energy continue to multiply and evolve, presenting challenges, opportunities and some unexpected consequences for the US power market.

But I was sitting at my kitchen table in North Buffalo, far from the wind farms of the Southern Tier, and such distance makes for simple, black-and-white comprehension. There are places in Western New York where wind energy isn’t so clear a choice. Places with names like Perry, Sheldon and Arkwright, rural towns perched atop the high glacial ridges to the east and south of the city, whose landscapes might soon be dominated by hundreds of towering, 400-foot windmills. As wind companies eye their windswept fields and make overtures to local town boards, divisions run deeper and deeper between citizens who disagree on the merits of wind farm development in their backyards. In such locales, the gray areas of wind development come into sharp focus.

Union Bank of California received OCC approval late last year for an equity investment in 70 percent of a wind energy project, which would allow the bank to take advantage of federal tax credits. The company intends to purchase wind turbines and land in order to generate electricity. Despite Union Bank's claim that the deal is structured as an investment rather than a loan only to take advantage of the tax credits, the OCC is not requiring the windmill company to repay the principal, and periodic payments are conditioned on revenues generated by the company.

As a result of the tax subsidies and high energy costs, the study said, Cape Wind Associates could expect to receive a 25 percent return on equity, or $139 million, over the decades-long life of the project.

NEW YORK - US companies and organizations that conserve electricity by switching to more efficient lighting or by moderating heating and cooling will earn a credit they can trade or bank. That's the hope of Sterling Planet, a Georgia-based company that has created "white tags," or tradable certificates that are similar to "green tags," or tradable credits for creating and delivering renewable energy, such as solar and wind.

To continue its rapid growth, wind energy must overcome some major hurdles in the next few years. Market development in the United States is strongly dependent on the federal PTCs, which for now must be periodically renewed by Congress.

The initial projects that would benefit from contributions from Ford buyers are a wind farm in Ainsworth, Nebraska, and Haubenschild Farms near Princeton, Minnesota, which converts manure into electricity, he said.

Berkeley, California [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Renewable energy certificates (REC) are increasingly important, especially in states that accept them as evidence of compliance with renewable portfolio standards (RPS).

Washington, DC [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] With energy independence and renewable energy development a legislative priority for Congressional leaders, the introduction of another renewable energy legislative proposal made its way to the Senate floor last week.

WASHINGTON, March 30 (UPI) -- The April 26 deadline for applications for allocation of congressionally authorized clean renewable energy bonds is fast approaching and it's unclear whether the sanctioned amount of $800 million will be enough to serve the growing interest in renewable energy projects.