In This Issue:

Energy and Climate Debate; Congress; Administration; Department of Agriculture; Department of Commerce; Department of Defense; Department of Energy; Department of Interior; Department of Treasury; Environmental Protection Agency; States; International; and Miscellaneous.

Excerpt from Energy and Climate Debate

As Congress prepares to return from a two-week recess and the Administration continues its vocal approval of an all of the above approach to energy policy, policymakers are gearing up for debates over a number of energy issues. The House moves immediately to its version of the transportation bill, with a Keystone XL approval provision, while the Senate will take up tax legislation with higher phased rates for the wealthy.

Now that senators have failed twice to include energy tax extenders language onto the highway bill, and though there will be efforts to tack on similar amendments to additional measures that move through the houses between now and the November elections, many are beginning to seriously consider a lame duck strategy for adopting a number of the expired or expiring energy tax extenders as part of a larger end of the year package. For example, we can expect the solar industry to begin to direct less of its attention to the now four-months expired 1603 Treasury grants program as it works to preserve the investment tax credit that is not scheduled to expire until 2016.