On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009 (the “Act”), an unprecedented economic stimulus package totaling over $787 billion in spending and tax incentives. The Act emphasizes energy related investments and technologies with renewable energy, smart grid, energy efficiency, and electric-vehicle provisions accounting for well over $60 billion of the total. On Friday, February 20, 2009 at 12:00 pm, Mintz Levin and ML Strategies will host a webinar to provide more information (learn more).

The Act provides significant funding for loan guarantees and grants for the deployment of renewable energy and smart grid technologies. The loan guarantees are expected to support over $60 billion in new loans, while the grants are designed to award companies 50% of the cost of demonstrating smart grid projects.

In addition to these spending provisions, the Act relies heavily on tax incentives. As noted in detail below, the Act extends the availability of the production tax credit, significantly expands the energy investment tax credit (including possibly receiving its value up-front as a grant), and adds a new investment tax credit for advanced energy manufacturing.

The Act further provides for over $10 billion of research and development grants in the areas of renewable energy, smart grid, and energy efficiency technologies. It also provides for direct government spending and grants totaling over $18 billion related to energy efficiency programs and alternative fuel and electric-vehicle technologies.

The following is a summary of the key provisions of the Act regarding renewable energy and smart grid projects, energy efficiency programs and alternative fuel and electric vehicle technologies.

Please see full alert for more information.