What if they gave a Tax Credit

and nobody invested?

Those of us who are of a certain age can recall a poster that adorned many a dorm room wall back in the 70s, entitled "What if they gave a war and nobody came ..."

The Washington Post now reports that the hard-earned extension of the investment tax credit for wind and solar projects may share this fate:

... the Treasury gave a special tax break to profitable banks that acquire troubled ones, thus allowing them to avoid taxation of billions of dollars of future profits for up to 20 years. Wells Fargo, for example, which invested more than $700 million in solar and wind energy projects from 2006 to 2008, may be able to shelter its next $74 billion in profits from taxation because of the tax break it received for buying Wachovia.