Will the Bailout Save Solar Tax Credits?

EcoGeek's Hank Green notes that while nothing could touch the 500 mph freefall of bank stocks last week, the stocks that took a surprising second-worst hit were solar. Green's reasoning for this, which we agree with, is that the solar industry was a victim of seriously bad timing: Just as renewable energy tax credits—which have been floundering in political quicksand for months—were finally passed in the Senate, a host of mega-banks decombusted, leaving the House with the small task of saving the American economy from collapse. With elections coming up, the session nearing a close, and words like "Great Depression" in the daily headlines, members of Congress were suddenly far less likely to turn their attention to a bill that won't lower gas prices or save the markets from implosion. Still, there's good news in every disaster: In a flash of redemption, yesterday the Senate added the renewable energy credits to the latest incarnation of the bailout, which passed in the Senate last night and will "almost certainly" pass in the House, as Clusterstock's John Carney told DISCOVER. So maybe it's not wise to unload those solar stocks (or any other stocks, for that matter) just yet.