The Senate included a number of clean energy tax extenders in the bipartisan spending deal that lawmakers will take up in the weeks after they pass a shorter-term measure on Thursday to avoid a government shutdown.

The extension of the tax subsidies would go to both clean coal and nuclear power plants, in addition to renewable energy resources such as geothermal and a host of others.

Trump administration sources told the Washington Examiner that most of these advanced energy sources, including geothermal, are backed President Trump.

"This would be an AWESOME one-two punch for clean and reliable energy! Budget deal includes not only a major expansion and extension of the critical 45Q carbon capture incentive but also extends the 45J nuclear production incentive. HUGE WIN if passed!!" tweeted Rich Powell with the conservative clean energy group ClearPath. The group has been influential with congressional Republicans in trying to reboot clean energy as a Republican issue, not one dominated by the Democrats.

This would be an AWESOME one-two punch for clean and reliable energy! Budget deal includes not only a major expansion and extension of the critical 45Q carbon capture incentive but also extends the 45J nuclear production incentive. HUGE WIN if passed!! https://t.co/NVjXTkbexq — Rich Powell (@powellrich) February 8, 2018



"This is a huge win for clean energy,” especially when it comes to constructing new nuclear plants, Jeremy Harrell, managing director of policy for ClearPath, told the Washington Examiner.

He said the nuclear credit can be used for conventional reactors such as the Vogtle plant being built in Georgia and advanced reactors like what the company NuScale is doing with its line of small, less expensive nuclear power plants.

"The credit is big for long-term investments in these technologies," he said.

Utility trade groups are also excited for the nuclear production tax credit being included, but also are pleased to see carbon capture for coal and investment credits for geothermal heat pumps included in the spending deal.

“We’re pleased the Senate agreed to include key energy tax provisions in the latest government funding bill,” said Jim Matheson, CEO for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, representing one of three major segments of the electric utility industry.

“These tax credits enable electric cooperatives to keep current and future costs down for consumers by promoting energy efficiency and a diverse fuel mix,” Matheson said.

However, renewable fuel groups had mixed feelings about the retroactive tax credit extensions for their industry in the proposed two-year spending deal. The tax credits would apply to biodiesel and advanced renewable fuels produced last year, but the industry said the extension does little good for an industry that requires long-term subsidies.

“While we are pleased that both bills include extensions of these critically important tax incentives, the deal to only retroactively extend the provisions would be disastrous for the biofuel industry," said Ed Hubbard, the Renewable Fuels Association's general counsel.

"These incentives are designed to help drive investment and innovation in the biofuel industry, but by definition only extending them for 2017 does not allow them to have any prospective benefit for the industry," Hubbard said. "A one-year, retroactive extension does nothing to help grow the second generation biofuel industry, and in fact would send an unnecessarily negative signal to the marketplace.”

Other renewable industries, however, thought the inclusion of the extenders helped move them toward parity with other renewable energy resources.

"Today marks a significant step toward achieving our goal of tax parity, but there is much more work to be done, and in the coming days we will be working hard to push this important tax provision over the finish line,” said Ryan Dougherty, executive director for the Geothermal Exchange Organization, representing the geothermal heat pump industry. The devices use the constant temperature of the earth to heat and cool homes and buildings, while using less energy to do so.

He said geothermal heat pumps are a 100 percent American-made product. So, the extension of federal tax credits means "the entire geothermal supply chain, including manufacturers, distributors, dealers, contractors, installers, drillers — plus all the families and small businesses that they support — will finally get the relief we have needed since being left on the sidelines in 2015," he said.