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PHOENIX — The future of the world's largest solar power plant planned for the Arizona desert could depend on whether the two presidential candidates manage to get back to Washington.

Efforts to actually get a vote on extending federal income tax credits for renewable energy projects have been stalled as Democratic leaders have been unable to round up the 60 votes necessary to bring the bill to the floor.

Two of the six missing votes this week were John McCain and Barack Obama. And while Obama is on record as favoring extension of the credits — a McCain's aide said Thursday he has yet to take a position — neither camp would commit to having its candidate in place to advance the measure at any future date.

That failure to act could prove fatal for the proposal by Abengoa Solar Inc. to build a 280 megawatt solar plant near Gila Bend. Kate Maracas the company's vice president for Arizona operations, said if the tax credits expire at the end of this year, the power plant will not be built in Arizona or, for that matter, anywhere in the United States.

And Steve Morse, Abengoa's senior advisor for U.S. operations, said just the pure delay by Congress could kill the project. He said the rising cost of steel and other supplies will, at some point, make the power plant uneconomical.

At this point the future of the Arizona plant, dubbed Solana, remains in doubt, especially without McCain. That's because Republicans are blocking action on any energy bills until the Democrat-controlled Senate first acts on the president's request to lift the ban on offshore drilling for oil.

But McCain, as the home-state senator for this project, might be able to convince enough GOP colleagues to break ranks to at least permit a vote on the measure. If that occurs, it stands a decent chance of approval. There were 51 votes in the 100-member Senate this week to close off debate and advance S 3335 for floor action, even without McCain and Obama.

Hanging in the balance is a deal between Abengoa, based in Spain, and Arizona Public Service to construct a "concentrating solar power" plant.

That technology has promise for a place like Arizona because heat here can shorten the life of photovoltaic cells that generate power directly from sunlight. This plant instead will use mirrors to concentrate sunlight to heat fluid in tubes which in turn will heat water and turn it into steam to drive the generators.

APS figures the plant will provide enough power for more than 60,000 homes.