Piggy-backing on a historic financial bailout for Wall Street bankers in the midst of a potentially global financial crisis certainly wasn’t what clean energy advocates had in mind earlier this year, when they began their push for an extension of the renewable tax credits. But that’s exactly what happened, and no one is complaining. (Reuters, Bloomberg)

The legislation was all but dead due to a dispute between the House and the Senate over how to pay for the subsidies, but Senate leaders crafted a last-minute rescue when they included their version in the bailout bill on Wednesday. Having spiked the first version of the bailout – sending already troubled stock markets plummeting around the world – House lawmakers decided it was time to give in on Friday.

The House easily cleared the legislation in a lopsided 263-171 vote, and within hours President George W. Bush had signed the bill into law.

All told, the incentives for clean energy, conservation and efficiency programs are worth an estimated $17 billion, but perhaps the biggest winners are the wind and solar industries. Both were facing a lapse in their tax incentives – 2 cents per kilowatt hour for wind and a 30 percent credit for solar investments – at the end of the year.

Wind received a one-year extension, which means producers will be back for more next year, but the solar industry made out with an eight-year extension of its credit. That is exactly the kind of predictability the renewable energy industry has been seeking from Washington for years.

But as with many pieces of legislation that come out of Congress, this one had its fair share of nonsense as well, including a pair of tax credits for rum producers in Puerto Rico and producers of wooden arrows used in children’s toys. That’s according to Politico, which reports that John McCain is once again fuming about wasteful spending.