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Category:
Tax Breaks & Subsidies
Lisa Linowes, executive director of the Industrial Wind Action Group, a watchdog organization based in New Hampshire, argues the end of the tax credit need not be fatal. She sees new wind installations as more dependent on state renewable energy laws than the tax credit.
Also filed under [
USA|
California]
Wind lobby strives to adapt to Tea Party era
May 7, 2012 by Timothy P. Carney in Washington Examiner
May 7, 2012 by Timothy P. Carney in Washington Examiner
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, who has sponsored PTC renewals in the past, was portrayed as AWEA's prime target. McCarthy has conservative credibility, and if it got him on board, AWEA felt it would have better luck getting the support of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Also filed under [
USA]
Changed climate: US renewables boom could turn into a bust
May 6, 2012 by Ed Crooks in Financial Times
May 6, 2012 by Ed Crooks in Financial Times
That boom, however, is on the brink of turning into a bust. As federal government support goes into precipitous decline as time-limited subsidies expire, the clean energy industry is facing a "funding cliff" according to a recent analysis by authors from three leading US think-tanks.
Also filed under [
USA]
The state's largest employer, IBM, is a little happier with the new version of the bill. The last-minute maneuvering gave the company a better guarantee that rates won't go up dramatically as a result of renewable initiatives.
Janet Doyle said the company pays $36 million a year in electricity rates. The original energy bill would have driven up costs another $4 million.
Also filed under [
Vermont]
Battle grows over extending tax breaks for wind energy producers
May 2, 2012 by Alicia Acuna in Fox News
May 2, 2012 by Alicia Acuna in Fox News
"At some point wind needs to stand on its own two feet," Lamborn said. "And when it comes to receiving taxpayer subsidies ... it doesn't seem to get to the point where it can stand on its own." He adds that his hope is this alternate energy source finds its way to give consumers more options.
Also filed under [
USA]
New bill proposes to extend wind energy PTC, slash oil subsidies
May 1, 2012 by Laura DiMugno in North American Windpower
May 1, 2012 by Laura DiMugno in North American Windpower
A group of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives has introduced new legislation that would extend a number of incentives for wind power and other forms of renewable energy while stripping subsidies for fossil fuels. ...The legislation also would renew the Section 1603 renewable energy cash-grant program - which expired at the end of last year - for another two years.
Also filed under [
USA]
Lisa Linowes, of the Industrial Wind Action Group, argued it is an unnecessary credit that largely benefits corporate investors and wind project owners. She said the real driver behind wind energy in recent years was state mandates that expanded the market for wind energy and other renewable energy sources. ..."The idea that wind is going to create and sustain jobs if the PTC is extended is largely industry hype and not substantiated by any performance data."
Also filed under [
Ohio]
Merkel's green jobs ambition stalls with cuts for solar
April 29, 2012 by Stefan Nicola in Bloomberg News
April 29, 2012 by Stefan Nicola in Bloomberg News
"We're seeing a major step backward regarding clean-energy jobs because of a lack of strategic industry policy coming from the federal government," Steffen Streu, a spokesman for the economy ministry in Brandenburg, said. "It was always said that each coal job given up will re-emerge in the renewable sector. That's not the case at the moment."
By the end of 2013, Ontario household power rates will be the second-highest in North America (after PEI), and they will continue to accelerate while they level off in most other jurisdictions. Even more alarming for Ontario's economic competitiveness, businesses and industrial customers will be hit by almost $12-billion in additional costs over the same period.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
Canada]
Road to US tax overhaul may be through extending tax provisions
April 27, 2012 by Siobhan Hughes in Wall Street Journal
April 27, 2012 by Siobhan Hughes in Wall Street Journal
Congressional tax-writing committees are in the early stages of discussing how to rewrite the tax code to bring down rates by more broadly eliminating scores of tax preferences. In the meantime, Congress is facing the year-end expiration of many of those short-term tax breaks ..."It's going to be pretty hard" to extend the production tax credit before the November elections, Rep. Richard Neal (D, Mass.) told reporters.
Also filed under [
USA]
U.S. lawmakers consider phaseout of wind energy tax break
April 26, 2012 by Richard Rubin in Bloomberg News
April 26, 2012 by Richard Rubin in Bloomberg News
U.S. lawmakers said they may consider extending and then phasing out the main tax break for producing wind energy.
Representative Patrick Tiberi, an Ohio Republican, said today he wanted to hear from the wind-energy industry about how such a phase-out might work.
Also filed under [
USA]
A 2.2-cent-per kilowatt hour production tax credit brings the "levelized" cost of electricity -- a combination of construction and operating costs -- for wind to $35 to $65 per megawatt-hour, depending on the region. That makes the resource competitive with natural gas.
Also filed under [
USA]
Gains in the sector don't necessarily lead to wider employment.
The wind industry, for example, has shed 10,000 jobs since 2009 even as the energy capacity of wind farms has nearly doubled, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry has added 75,000 jobs since Obama took office, according to Labor Department statistics.
Also filed under [
Impact on Economy|
USA]
Originally, Nofs planned on granting wind developers relief from paying industrial personal property taxes. However, after speaking with the area's lawmakers - Sen. Mike Green, R-Mayville, and Rep. Kurt Damrow, R-Port Austin - there was a change of heart.
Also filed under [
Michigan]
County wants guarantees before it OKs wind deal
April 7, 2012 by Kate Hessling in Huron Daily Tribune
April 7, 2012 by Kate Hessling in Huron Daily Tribune
Exelon officials told county planners the company will follow the same format set by DTE Energy, which included a third-party surety bond as well as a corporate guarantee. Exelon officials said the financial assurance it originally offered is the same the company used in other projects. It's not acceptable to the county and the company understands that.
The state, often rated as having the greatest wind potential in the nation, now has about 1,400 megawatts of total wind capacity. ...But notices of intent for new wind farms have stalled since last fall and development has slowed in recent months.
Solar company bankrupt despite 'win-win' DOE loan
April 3, 2012 by Joel Gehrke in Washington Examiner
April 3, 2012 by Joel Gehrke in Washington Examiner
Solar Trust for America received $2.1 billion in conditional loan guarantees from the Department of Energy -- "the largest amount ever offered to a solar project," according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu -- for a project near Blythe, Calif., but declared bankruptcy within a year. It is unclear how much of the guarantee, if any, was actually awarded.
Also filed under [
USA|
California]
Popular wind-energy tax credit stumbles in Congress
April 2, 2012 by Allison Sherry in The Denver Post
April 2, 2012 by Allison Sherry in The Denver Post
Colorado's entire delegation - save GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs - supports an extension. So does Iowa's congressional delegation. Lots of senators and House members, both liberals and conservatives, have signed up to support it.
But the production-tax-credit extension - which costs $4.1 billion over 10 years and includes some other renewables such as geothermal - has thrice failed in the U.S. Senate.
In the case of Record Hill, the report says, the turbine technology used by the company wasn't truly innovative -- and thus did not meet one of the criteria for obtaining a loan guarantee. The report also said that other investment by the wealthy Yale University Endowment meant a federal loan guarantee really wasn't needed.
Also filed under [
Maine]
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