Last night the Senator Harry Reid introduced a bill designed to extend the Bush-era tax cuts—the ones that Washington has been abuzz about all week. The bill (pdf) is in line with a deal that President Obama made with Republicans, which would extend the tax credits to the wealthy, as well as the middle class, in exchange for a package of incentives that Democrats want, including a payroll tax reduction and an extension of unemployment insurance benefits. It also includes something the original deal didn't have—an extension of a popular grant program for solar, wind, and other renewable energy projects.

The program, established under section 1603 of the Recovery Act of 2009—and often referred to as the 1603 grant program—gives grants instead of tax credits that had been previously authorized to renewable energy project developers, which makes it much easier to get financing. The program had required construction to start on renewable energy projects by the end of this year—a deadline that came too soon for many projects mired in lengthy approval processes. Without the new extension of the grant, financing for renewable energy projects would be cut in half, according to one estimate (pdf).

The bill also extends almost a dozen energy-related incentives programs, including production credits for biodiesel, tax credits for energy efficient home manufacturers, and ethanol subsidies.

The gasoline-powered, internal combustion engine dominated transportation during the 20th century, but during the early years of the automobile it wasn't obvious that it would beat out two alternatives: batteries and steam.

The movement to cut carbon emissions and petroleum consumption has of course renewed interest in electric vehicles. But there's also an effort to revive the steam engine.

Today I got a letter (speaking of antiquated technologies) from the president of the Steam Automobile Club of America, Tom Kimmel, directing my attention to Cyclone Power Technologies, a startup based in Pompano Beach, FL. A few days ago, the company demonstrated its new steam engine, which generates 100 horsepower. The company has also posted some videos of the engine here. It can run on just about any source of heat: the sun, wood pellets, biofuels, diesel, waste heat from other engines. Basically anything that can be used to produce a head of steam. The first application would be generating power from waste heat, the company says (pdf), but the engine could also be used to power vehicles.

Kimmel writes that steam engines can run directly on biomass, without the need to convert it into biofuels, with the energy losses that this entails. But there's a reason why liquid fuels beat out the alternatives before--they store more energy. It's hard to imagine this being a real alternative--outside of some nice applications. Anyone think otherwise?