The Oil Drum

I have skimmed HR 2776, and read parts of it in detail.  My impressions:

1. There appears to be no tax credit for infrastructure for charging electric vehicles (though it might be hidden in one of the sections which only modifies existing language).  This should be promoted strongly, and tax deductions for new construction should be curtailed if it doesn't have it.  A large fraction of the US population lives in multi-unit dwellings, and there's no point in having a PHEV if you don't have a place to plug it in.
2. Mortgage deductions should be DENIED for developments which restrict or prohibit domestic solar PV, domestic solar hot water, or EV/PHEV wiring.  Individual owners should have a right of private action against homeowners and condominium associations which maintain such restrictions.
3. Landlords should be able to depreciate solar DHW and solar A/C systems at a rate sufficient to make them attractive, perhaps with other incentives.  I'm low on sleep and have no time to make better suggestions.
4. The biofuels section appears to be limited to promotion of liquid motor fuels.  This is a mistake; liquid fuels are perhaps the most expensive and least efficient products which can be made from biomass.  It is much more efficient to make electricity, and the byproducts can be much better for agriculture.  I would suggest this:
   • A tax credit for electric power generated from biomass equal to the wind-power tax credit.
   • A tax credit for charcoal generated from crop or green wastes (of perhaps $15/ton) if permanently sequestered by use as a soil amendment.
5. The tax credit for PHEV's phases out much too fast.  No US manufacturer can get started with a market that might taper way off after only 60K vehicles; the number should be at least 4 times that (250,000) and perhap 10 times (600,000).

That's all I've got off the top of my head.  I'm sorry that I got to this so late (I should have been involved from last April), but I got out of the loop.