The Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 this afternoon. The vote was 52-44, well short of the 60 needed to move the legislation forward. This legislation would have extended the investment tax credits (ITC) for solar energy and the production tax credits (PTC) for wind, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, landfill gas, and solid waste.
The vote fell primarily along party lines, though Republicans Norm Coleman (Minn.), Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Bob Corker (Tenn.), and Gordon Smith (Ore.) crossed over to vote in favor of moving the bill forward.
But wait, doesn’t this sound familiar? Why yes. It was a mere week ago that the Senate voted against cloture on this same tax-credit-extension legislation by a vote of 50-44. In fact, this is the sixth time [PDF] the Senate has failed to advance legislation to extend renewable-energy tax credits since June 21, 2007.
