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Senators Introduce Bill to Promote Fuel Cell Technology Courtesy MEMA

On March 22, 2005 Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) reintroduced a bill to encourage the use of fuel cells in an effort to address the country’s growing energy needs.

The bill (S. 671) would give consumers a tax credit for purchasing residential and commercial fuel cell systems to power their electricity. The tax credit would apply to all types of stationary and portable fuel cell systems and would be applicable for five years.

The legislation, which the senators first introduced in May 2001 and included in the 2002 energy bill, would provide a $1,000 per kilowatt fuel cell tax credit for business and residential fuel cell power plants (stationary and portable) that have an electrical generation efficiency of greater than 30 percent and generate at least 0.5 kilowatt of electricity using an electrochemical process. (A home uses about 1-2 kilowatts of power on average.) The credit would be available for five years.