Measures Would Cut Costs for American Manufacturers and Businesses, Create Up to One Million Jobs and Slash Greenhouse Gas Emissions

WASHINGTON, Apr 15, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) –Capstone Turbine Corporation (www.capstoneturbine.com ) (Nasdaq:CPST), the world’s leading clean technology manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, joined more than 80 business, labor, environmental and government organizations this week urging Congress to adopt a new tax policy to significantly enhance industrial energy efficiency. If adopted, the United States can expect increased manufacturing competitiveness, creation of new jobs and reduced pollution.

On April 12, Capstone and other supporters sent letters to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee asking for tax credits to expand use of combined heat and power (CHP) and waste-energy recovery. Both technologies are capable of roughly doubling the energy efficiency of an industrial plant or other energy user. The result is significantly lowered energy costs and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Capstone’s American-made, ultra clean microturbine products have helped customers worldwide reduce energy consumption and lower pollution for more than a decade,” said Darren Jamison, President and CEO. “An increased tax credit will enable future customers to purchase the cleanest and most efficient technologies available and receive shorter paybacks.”

Supporters of industrial and commercial energy efficiency are asking for passage of the bipartisan S. 1639, which is sponsored by Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). The supporters are also requesting passage of H.R. 4144, which is sponsored by Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA), and H.R. 4751, which is sponsored by Representative Paul Tonko (D-NY). The legislation encourages near-term, shovel-ready projects that will create and maintain thousands of jobs within the industrial and commercial sectors. In addition, the bills support the manufacture, installation and operation of CHP and waste-energy recovery equipment.

According to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a large-scale expansion of CHP could provide 20 percent of U.S. generating capacity by 2030, generate $234 billion in new investment and create nearly 1 million highly-skilled, technical jobs in America. Such an expansion would reduce CO2 emissions by more than 800 million tons per year, the equivalent of taking more than half the current U.S. passenger vehicles off the road.

Waste-energy recovery, which captures waste energy from industrial facilities, now receives no tax benefits. Combined heat and power (CHP), a process by which manufacturers and businesses generate electricity and heat on site, obtains only a 10 percent investment tax credit for the first 15 megawatts of a project limited to 50 megawatts in size. The bills now in the House and Senate would remove the limitation to small projects and apply the tax credit to a project’s first 25 megawatts (S. 1639 and H.R. 4144), and provide a 30 percent tax credit for recycled energy and CHP with efficiencies above 70 percent (H.R. 4751).

Supporters of the legislation include:

Business

Capstone Turbine Corporation
Caterpillar
Cummins Power Generation
Dow Chemical
Fluor
GE Energy
Ingersoll Rand
Libbey Glass Inc.
LS Power
Mosaic Company
Ormat
PPG Industries
Primary Energy
Saint-Gobain Containers
Solar Turbines
United Technologies Corporation
Veolia Energy North America Holdings
ACCO Engineered Systems (California,Washington, Idaho, Nevada)
ACR Sheet Metal Company
Avalon Consulting, Inc. (Illinois)
BHP Energy (Ohio)
Calnetix Power Solutions, Inc. (Florida)
Charles P. Blouin Inc. (New Hampshire)
Circle “R” Mechanical, Inc. (Indiana)
Climate Energy (Massachusetts)
DCO Energy (New Jersey)
Dresser-Rand/Aircogen (Massachusetts)
ECR International (New York)
Endurant Energy LLC (Illinois)
Energenic LLC (New Jersey)
Energy Solutions Center (Washington,D.C.)
Ernest D. Menold, Inc (Pennsylvania)
GEM Inc. (Ohio and Georgia)
KGRA Energy Corporation (Illinois)
Lewis and Lambert Industries, Inc.(Texas)
National Heating & Ventilating (New Mexico)
NV Energy (Nevada)
NewLoop Energy (Illinois)
Melrose Metal Products (California)
Midwest Fabricators, LLC
Recycled Energy Development (Illinois)
RHP Mechanical Systems (Nevada)
RSP Systems (New York)
Rudolph Libbe Companies (Ohio and Michigan)
Sheet Metal Engineering, Inc. (Iowa)
Tal-Mar Custom Metal (Illinois)
Turbine Air Systems (Texas)
Turbosteam (Massachusetts)
Tweet/Garot (Wisconsin)
Zeledyne (Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee)

Contractor and Industry Associations

American Chemistry Council
American Forest and Paper Association
The Association of Union Constructors
Electricity Consumers Resource Council
Glass Manufacturing Industry Council
International District Energy Association
Mechanical Contractors Association of America
National Council for Advanced Manufacturing
National Electrical Contractors Association
Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association
Steel Founders’ Society of America
U.S. Clean Heat and Power Association

Labor

International Brotherhood of Boilermakers
Sheet Metal Workers International Association

Environmental/Government/Non-Profit

Alliance to Save Energy
Association of State Energy Research & Technology Transfer Institutions
Business Council for Sustainable Energy Center for American Progress Action Fund
Energy Future Coalition
National Association of State Energy Officials
Northeast-Midwest Institute
Sierra Club
World Alliance for Decentralized Energy