Markey: Re-power the DOE Renewable Energy Loan Guarantee Program

Congress Must Replenish the $2 Billion Taken to Fund Cash For Clunkers

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and more than twenty-five of their House colleagues sent a letter to Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey urging the restoration of $2 billion for the Department of Energy's renewable energy loan guarantee program. Originally appropriated $6 billion through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February, the renewable energy loan account was reduced by $2 billion in July to extend the highly successful Cash for Clunkers program.

"Earlier this year, we successfully got 700,000 clunkers off the road in less than a month. But we've still got plenty of clunker power plants left on the electricity grid," said Rep. Markey. "Replenishing funding for this critical renewable energy program will help ensure that America is able to scale up the clean energy industry and create jobs needed to produce the energy technologies of the future. That is the recipe for ultimately putting the remaining clunkers to rest. This $2 billion is what we committed to this critical job-generating industry back in February in the Recovery Act, and it is important we follow through on that commitment."

Loan guarantee assistance enables $1 billion in public funding to be leveraged to generate $10 billion in private investment. Restoration of the $2 billion will allow the DOE to continue committing loan guarantees through 2010, providing valuable fuel to the economic recovery. Today's letter, which can be found here, was signed by a total of thirty-one members of Congress.

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