WASHINGTON, D.C.  -  With gas prices averaging over $4 a gallon nationwide, the heat is on for Congress to get a new energy policy in gear.

Most folks understand there is no one silver bullet for bringing down high gas prices.
One common sense solution – lifting the ban on environmentally-safe energy exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf and the Alaska wilderness – can be passed immediately. Congress needs to stop talking and get this done.

But Congress can do far more, especially when it comes to helping each one of us reduce our energy costs at home and at work.

Tax credits are an important tool. Earlier this year, the House passed a couple of bills with my support that would encourage families and businesses to invest in equipment that allows them to produce their own clean, renewable energy.

While these bills are not yet law, on the whole they symbolize the type of forward-looking, progressive public policy our nation so desperately needs when it comes to designing a new energy policy for our nation.

For example, for wind energy, which holds great promise in some regions of the country, the bills would provide a tax credit that supports the purchase of turbines or other wind energy equipment.

Solar energy is important too. While you’d think solar is perfectly suited to southern states like Alabama, which have all the sun and heat we can take, engineers have consistently said through the years we just don’t get enough direct sun to make solar best suited for Alabama.

But it does work well in places like the desert Southwest. Either way, these bills would include a tax credit to help folks purchase solar panels for their homes and businesses.

Other tax credits would help folks save money over the long term by making their homes more energy efficient with new  heat pumps, energy efficient water heaters and central air conditioning systems.

For our truckers, school districts and other businesses suffering with escalating diesel prices, the bills would extend a one dollar per gallon tax credit for biodiesel, which is currently made using products like soybean oil and used cooking grease.

 
Of course, one of the major obstacles to reducing our dependence on oil is the lack of infrastructure to deliver fuels like biodiesel.

These bills would help gas station owners pay for the large expense of installing alternative fuel pumps.

With high energy costs unfortunately expected to stretch far into the future, the time is now to enact these common sense solutions. Congress and the president should get to work.

As always I'd like to hear from you on this or any issue you may have.  Please write or visit me at any of my district offices or on the web at www.house.gov/mike-rogers.