News
Category:
USA or Oregon
PTC Update: IRS clarifies 'commence construction' requirements
April 17, 2013 by Mark Del Franco in North American Windpower
April 17, 2013 by Mark Del Franco in North American Windpower
Under the IRS notice for PTCs, Burton explains, the tax-equity investor will need to consider not only whether 5% of a project's costs have been incurred, but also whether continuous construction was undertaken starting Jan. 1, 2014. "Continuous construction introduces an additional subjective element that requires an incremental layer of analysis for tax-equity investors and their counsel to grapple with," he says.
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
USA]
IRS defines start of construction for the Production Tax Credit
April 16, 2013 by Keith Martin and John Marciano in Chadbourne & Parke
April 16, 2013 by Keith Martin and John Marciano in Chadbourne & Parke
The Internal Revenue Service explained today what developers must do this year to be considered to have started construction of new renewable energy projects.
The IRS adopted roughly the same definition for start of construction as under the Treasury cash grant program.
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
USA]
IRS sets wind tax credit regulations for 2013 projects
April 16, 2013 by Richard Rubin & Christopher Martin in Bloomberg News
April 16, 2013 by Richard Rubin & Christopher Martin in Bloomberg News
The Internal Revenue Service completed rules today that define how wind-farm developers can qualify for tax breaks.
Under a law signed by President Barack Obama in January, wind projects must begin construction by Dec. 31 to qualify for the production tax credit. That's looser than the standard from previous years, which required energy production to qualify.
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
USA]
The modern environmental movement has rolled over to become an outlet for loggers, energy firms and car companies to plug into. It is now primarily a social media platform for consumerism, growth and energy production - an institutionalized philanderer of green illusions. If you need evidence, just go to any climate rally and you'll see a strip mall of stands for green products, green jobs and green energy. These will do nothing to solve the crisis we face, which is not an energy crisis but rather a crisis of consumption.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
USA]
GOP hopes to take some of the wind out of industry’s government aid
April 15, 2013 by Nick Juliano in E&E News
April 15, 2013 by Nick Juliano in E&E News
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
USA]
Congress is slowly but steadily drilling into energy policy tax issues, but anyone hoping to see detailed plans soon may be disappointed.
"Like any good play, you have to set the scenes, and we'll see what happens in the final act," said Steve Nadel, executive director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
Obama seen giving himself wiggle room with call for permanent tax credit
April 12, 2013 by Nick Juliano in E&E News
April 12, 2013 by Nick Juliano in E&E News
The PTC's fate could be decided within the broader negotiations in Congress over how to overhaul the tax code for the first time since 1986. Lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee have been meeting privately for months on the topic, and additional details are expected to be rolled out over the course of this year. But it remains an open question whether tax reform will become a reality.
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
USA]
Republicans who control the House of Representatives have criticized Obama's clean-energy initiatives as wasteful boondoggles, pointing to the high-profile bankruptcies of companies like solar-panel maker Solyndra that benefited from federal backing.
But the budget proposal signals that clean energy will remain a priority for Obama in his second term in office.
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
USA]
Overlapping wind energy initiatives spark claims of waste, as IRS increases tax credit
April 8, 2013 in Fox News
April 8, 2013 in Fox News
"This labyrinth of overlapping programs has spawned a system in which a single wind project could have siphoned public funds from numerous federal and state programs," Daniel Simmons, director of state affairs at the Institute for Energy Research, wrote in U.S. News & World Report. "These include a Section 1603 grant, accelerated depreciation, a DOE loan guarantee, state tax incentives, and indirect subsidies from a state Renewable Portfolio Standard. Adding to the waste, GAO reports that states often design their initiatives to skirt double-dipping laws."
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
USA]
Wind industry in holding pattern, awaiting new tax rules
April 5, 2013 by Elias Hinckley in Christian Science Monitor
April 5, 2013 by Elias Hinckley in Christian Science Monitor
No one is exactly sure what it means to begin construction. There are some obvious assumptions that can be made, but at the edges, such as where a developer is contracting for facility components, the final vision or location of a project is not completely fixed, or instances where an adequate financial commitment is made to begin construction, the rules for qualification will be vital.
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
USA]
3 face June trial in Wyoming wind farm fraud case
April 5, 2013 by Associated Press in Bismarck Tribune
April 5, 2013 by Associated Press in Bismarck Tribune
The indictment alleges they hired phone solicitors to make cold calls to investors, telling them that the wind farms were being constructed jointly by private investors and the U.S. government. The indictment lists victims only by their initials, stating that many of them mailed in checks for $25,000 or more. Prosecutors have declined to identify victims.
BP selling its entire U.S. wind power Business; will focus on oil and gas for future growth
April 3, 2013 by Matt Cover in CNS News
April 3, 2013 by Matt Cover in CNS News
“BP has decided to market for sale our U.S. wind energy business as part of a continuing effort to become a more focused oil and gas company and re-position the company for sustainable growth into the future.” BP said that selling its entire U.S. wind operations would make the company more profitable.
BP (BP.L) has put its U.S. wind farm operation, one of the largest in the country, up for sale, marking the continued retreat of big oil companies from renewable energy investments while oil and gas projects offer them better returns.
Exelon falls from green favor as chief fights wind aid
April 1, 2013 by Jim Snyder & Julie Johnsson in Bloomberg News
April 1, 2013 by Jim Snyder & Julie Johnsson in Bloomberg News
"I will continue my efforts to get rid of the 20-year-old, multi-billion-dollar subsidy for unreliable, expensive wind energy that stands no chance of powering our nation's 21st century economy." ...Perhaps just as important, Alexander said, wind turbines would scar the mountaintops of Tennessee, the only place in the state where they can work.
Mr. Sanford said he wrote the bill because he is opposed to government mandates, not because he favors any particular energy source-a sentiment echoed by legislators in other states. "Texas is blessed with a lot of incredible resources for energy, wind and solar amongst them. But they need to be developed with free-market principles, not with the heavy hand of government directing us to an inefficient process," he said in an interview.
US support for wind projects could be wasting federal funds: GAO
March 27, 2013 by Derek Sands in Platts
March 27, 2013 by Derek Sands in Platts
The US government has not justified its financial support of wind energy and that failure could lead to unnecessary federal spending to boost the wind industry ..."Federal support in excess of what is needed to induce projects to be built could instead be used to induce other projects or simply withheld, thereby reducing federal expenditures,"
Also filed under [
Tax Breaks & Subsidies|
USA]
Despite a recent report trumpeting a record year for wind power in 2012, the numbers are not as encouraging as they seem.
Because even though total wind power capacity grew by 30 percent last year, with 13,000 megawatts in new wind turbines, the actual portion of our electricity coming from wind energy did not increase proportionally.
Senator introduces measure to repeal wind energy production tax credit
March 27, 2013 in North American Windpower
March 27, 2013 in North American Windpower
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who has been one of the most vocal congressional opponents of the wind energy production tax credit (PTC), has sponsored a budget amendment in the U.S. Senate that would repeal the PTC - which he calls a "wasteful federal taxpayer subsidy for unreliable, expensive wind energy."
Also filed under [
USA]
"What people need to understand is that it's not just prairie chickens. It's really the inter-connectedness of these biotic communities," Boal said. "When we have indicators like a prairie chicken, and there's something going wrong, that's an indication of that biotic community as a whole. We need to think about, ‘what is the world we want to live in?'