Developers of wind and solar power are hopeful that Congress will find a way to extend federal tax breaks for renewable energy resources despite a political standoff and imminent adjournment.

Wind and solar-energy industries say thousands of megawatts are being suspended pending a final agreement on Capitol Hill. The production tax credit for wind power and investment tax credits for solar power expire Dec. 31.

The most recent development came late on Sept. 28 when House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) offered a revised, two-bill plan. One measure contained only energy tax credits and the second bill has extensions for non-energy, business breaks. The bills include revenue-raising provisions that the Senate had approved to offset the costs the tax credits impose on the Treasury.

But even after Rangel's new plan, the Senate remained steadfast in supporting its own version of the legislation. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said, "While I commend the Housešs effort to fully offset the cost of this needed tax legislation, it is clear to me from discussions in the Senate that even this new package of bills will not pass in this body."

Earlier, the Senate and House had passed separate bills to extend the solar and wind credits but the bills differed over how to offset the cost of those provisions and other, non-energy tax breaks. Those discrepancies have put the energy tax credits in limbo.

The Senate, in an extraordinary show of bipartisanship, voted 93-2 on Sept. 23 to pass its bill, which has a total of $17 billion in energy tax credits. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the House "should just accept what we've done because this is the ninth time I tried to craft something that will pass over here. If they send us back something different, it is dead. Sorry to say."

But House leaders forged their own bill, with $15-billion in energy tax credits and passed it on Sept. 26, on a 257-166 vote. The House measure met immediate Senate and White House opposition.

As Congress worked past its Sept. 26 target adjournment on a Wall Street bailout bill, it was uncertain whether lawmakers would also reach an accord on the energy tax incentives before leaving for the year.

"There is so much momentum. We're keeping optimistic," says Monique Hanis, spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industries Association. About 5.4 GW of utility-scale solar projects are on hold Arizona, California and Florida because of the tax credit situation, according to SEIA.

"Projects can't move forward if they don't know what the tax rules are going to be next year," said Christine Real de Azua, spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association.

"The entire pipeline for 2009 is in the balance," Real de Azua says. "The vast majority of projects include the tax credits in their financing."

The House and Senate bills would extend the credit for wind for one year, through 2009. The Senate bill also extends the credit through 2010 for other sources, such as biomass, geothermal and hydropower. The House bill provides an extension through Sept, 30, 2011, for these other non-wind-power facilities.

For solar energy, both the Senate and House bills extend the 30% investment tax credit for commercial projects and the residential credit through 2016. The bills also remove the $2,000 credit cap on residential investments.

In addition, the Senate bill authorizes $800 million in new clean renewable energy bonds for municipalities and cooperatives to build wind and solar power projects. The House bill does not.

Both bills would extend the existing tax deduction for energy-efficient commercial buildings through 2013. This tax credit is up to $1.80 per square foot of buildings that meet a 50% energy savings target through their heating, cooling, ventilation and hot water systems and interior lighting.

The Senate bill provides $1.5 billion in new tax credits for advanced coal-fired projects and coal gasification projects that demonstrate carbon capture and sequestration. The House bill offers $1.1 billion for these projects.