Measures linked, going nowhere

By Lisa Mascaro

Monday, July 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

When Sen. John Ensign successfully halted a popular mortgage relief bill to push an amendment extending renewable energy tax credits, he essentially raised an uncomfortable question: What’s more important, green energy or housing help?

Practically everyone in Washington, it seems, wants to be green this year. With gas breaking $4 a gallon, efforts to develop renewable energy that could bring green-collar jobs and relief at the pump are politically rewarding endeavors.

Yet the foreclosure crisis is acute. Nevada has fallen into an economic downturn as the housing market has nose dived. The nation posted its sixth straight month of job losses on Friday, and Nevada’s unemployment rate is higher than the national average.

If you had to answer, and no one does, would you say it’s worth it to delay housing relief another week or two if it means getting renewable energy development?

Ensign wants to do both. He supports housing help but also thinks the bill offers the best chance for attaching his renewable energy legislation. Yet as a result of his pushing to link the two, Congress recessed having accomplished neither. The debate may resume this week.

Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV, sees both sides.

“The housing issue is short term, and there is kind of a need to get on with it because of the difficulty of foreclosures going forward,” he said.

“The energy issue is a long-term perspective,” Schwer continued, “but if you don’t address it in the short-term you end up with a long-term problem” — as we’re in today.

Ensign achieved national prominence for single-handedly holding up the housing relief package late last month. He scuttled Congress’ attempt to complete the deal in time for lawmakers to return home for the July 4th holiday recess with the promise of aid on the way.

As unrest mounted over the tactic, Ensign told reporters he had no trouble playing the heavy if it meant he could secure the green energy tax credits for Nevada and other states.

Ensign argues that the two issues are linked, as the renewable energy industry stands to lose jobs and investment if Congress allows $8 billion in tax credits to expire. The solar and wind industries estimate 116,000 jobs and $20 billion in investment would be lost, including the potential for 1,170 jobs in Nevada. Ensign puts the numbers even higher.

Without the tax credits to help push solar and other renewable industries off the ground, companies say, they will be forced to walk away from their investments.

“Every month that goes by there are projects that are basically not going to be funded and jobs that are lost in the renewable energy field,” Ensign told reporters late last month.

Yet the mortgage mess is causing very real pain at home. Nevada has topped the nation with the highest foreclosure rate for 17 consecutive months. Nationwide, as many as 8,000 homes a day are entering foreclosure.

The housing bill would give homeowners an opportunity to refinance through the Federal Housing Administration at lower rates than through banks. It would provide funds for cities and other local government agencies to buy up foreclosed properties for resale, to prevent the neighborhood blight of abandoned homes.

Sherle R. Scwhenninger, director of the economic growth program at the New America Foundation, said the housing market urgently needs help.

“Right now, for Nevada and the country, it’s probably more important to have a package that could help stem or provide a softer landing to the housing market,” he said.

“There’s clearly real pain,” Scwhenninger said. “It’s a great moment to get some housing relief out there to stem the downward spiral and the recessionary pressure it creates.”

Ensign’s office declined to say the senator’s next move as the Senate resumes the housing debate, possibly as early as today.

Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader, has said he will not allow any nonhousing-related amendments — meaning Ensign can protest all he wants with continued parliamentary stalls, but his amendment will not be given a vote.

The problem Reid faces is this: Even though Senate Democrats overwhelmingly support Ensign’s legislation (which passed 88-8 on an earlier vote), their colleagues in the House won’t accept the tax credit extension unless it is paid for.

Ensign doesn’t think the costs need a financial offset, saying the tax credits will stimulate the economy, producing new revenue. In fact, he helped the Senate defeat a version of the bill that would have taxed hedge-fund managers and offshore accounts to pay the energy credits.

Reid is reluctant to send a bill back to the House that his colleagues cannot support, fearing it would prolong the housing debate even further (or force the House to “swallow” its fiscal restraint pledge, as Ensign has suggested).

Ensign thinks Democrats are putting themselves in a bind.

As head of the committee in charge of electing Republicans to the Senate, Ensign thinks Democrats risk being seen as stalling renewable energy — a campaign talking point his committee will surely make as it tries to show Republicans as green-friendly, even as their candidate for president, John McCain, advocates such environmentally unfriendly measures as drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But Ensign faces his own risk. He is being seen as the senator who stalled mortgage relief for millions of Americans, including many in Nevada.

Kirsten Searer, spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, issued a statement saying Ensign’s stunt is “politics at its absolute worst. John Ensign is trying to score political points while ignoring the desperate cries from his constituents who need help with the housing crisis.”

“If Sen. Ensign wants to push an energy bill,” she said, “he should do it without holding Nevada’s families hostage.”

Ensign pressed on.

“I have no problem being an obstructionist when you’re trying to do something really good for the country,” he told reporters before the holiday break. “That’s why we’ve been so adamant.”