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Showing posts with label incentive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label incentive. Show all posts

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Support for the wind-energy production tax credit

Press release:


For Immediate Release
August 2, 2012

Support for the wind-energy production tax credit

M E M O R A N D U M

TO:    Reporters and Editors
RE:    Support for the wind-energy production tax credit
DA:    Thursday, August 2, 2012

Senator Chuck Grassley issued the following comment about the inclusion today of a one-year extension of the wind-energy tax credit in The Family and Business Tax Cut Certainty Act of 2012 reported by the Committee on Finance.  The overall package includes an amendment written by Senator Grassley and accepted this morning as part of the modified proposal of Committee Chairman Max Baucus.

Grassley comment:

“The wind-energy production tax credit is designed to level the playing field for this renewable resource against coal-fired and nuclear electricity generation.  The credit has been successful in developing clean, renewable, domestically produced wind energy and the jobs that go along with it.  The one-year extension approved today would make the credit effective for producers for one more year.  In the face of an effort to end this incentive, I persuaded committee leaders to include the extension in a way that keeps it at full value and that puts the wind-energy production tax credit in a strong position for the floor debate this fall.  No single energy tax incentive should be singled out over others, energy-related and not, before a broad-based tax reform debate.  Congress and the President need to take up tax reform to make American business more competitive with lower rates, a broader tax base, and a simpler code.  Until tax reform is undertaken, workers and employers need certainty in existing tax law.”

Description of the Grassley amendment to The Family and Business Tax Cut Certainty Act of 2012:

Extend for one year, through December 31, 2013, the section 45 production tax credit for wind which expires on December 31, 2012.  Modify placed-in-service date for wind to a “begin construction” rule.

Background information:

Senator Grassley authored the legislation that created the wind-energy production tax credit in 1992 and has won passage of extensions a number of times.

Today, wind-energy production supports 75,000 American jobs and drives as much as $20 billion in private investment.  During the last five years, 35 percent of all new electric generation in the United States was wind.  There are nearly 400 wind-related manufacturing facilities in the United States today, compared with just 30 in 2004.

Conventional energy sources, including oil, gas and nuclear, enjoy countless tax incentives and many of them are permanent law.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

State (Biodiesel) Energy Initiatives Successful in IL & TX

From the Biodiesel Bulletin, January 2012:



Just before the holidays, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a five-year extension of the state’s biodiesel tax exemption. The omnibus jobs bill containing the biodiesel provision extends the incentive’s sunset date from December 31, 2013 to December 31, 2018. The incentive provides a complete exemption from the state’s 6.25% road sales tax for biodiesel blends above B10, a policy that is largely responsible for Illinois’ position as the nation’s largest domestic marketplace.

Extension of the Illinois biodiesel tax incentive demonstrates the power of America’s advanced biofuel as a job and economic driver in the state.
“We applaud Illinois leaders for their vision and long-term support of the state incentive and call on our national leaders to follow suit and extend the biodiesel tax incentive at the federal level,” said National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe.

In addition, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) issued regulatory guidance that removes biodiesel from the U.S. EPA-mandated Texas Low Emission Diesel (TxLED) program. The TCEQ guidance document indicates that biodiesel has no measurable negative impact on air quality, including NOx. Previous to this announcement, biodiesel blends between B6 and B20 required additization to achieve legal fuel status. With this announcement, biodiesel is no longer regulated for NOx, or any other type of emissions, in any U.S. state. A copy of the regulatory guidance document can be found HERE