Tax credits: gone with the wind?
Why the Wind Industry
Is Freaking Out About
the Tax Bill
Currently, the wind industry has a Production Tax Credit, or PTC. Started in 1992, it’s a 10-year credit that kicks in once a wind project comes online. In 2015, there was a bipartisan move to slowly bring an end to the credit, which was supported by
the wind industry.
Construction projects were still eligible for the full 100 percent credit if they qualified in 2016. But once the year ended, the credits started phasing out. Projects in 2017 received 80 percent of the credit, dropping to 60 percent in 2018 and 40 percent in 2019. The credit disappears in 2020.
Companies could ensure their projects qualified for the full credit by either starting construction or by spending 5 percent of the end total construction costs before the first deadline. (One caveat: The project must be finished in four years.) Many companies took the 5 percent route, typically buying wind turbines and storing them.
But the House bill retroactively changes the rules of the game, the wind industry says. Projects that chose the 5 percent route no longer qualify. That means all the projects that put in last-minute orders for turbines at the end of 2016 (there were a lot) no longer qualify for the full 100 percent credit.
The best they could hope for is the 2017 credit limit. That is if they can get the construction project going in time.
Additionally, the value of the credit dropped. Instead of the current inflation-adjusted $24 per megawatt hour, projects would be working with a $15 per megawatt hour credit.
Another fear is that the House bill requires construction to be continuous, which is interpreted to mean no pauses.
► Source◄
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Comment
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Comment by arthur qwenk on December 20, 2017 at 9:29am
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A reminder to all wind groups.
Contrary to what the Borg state"Resistance is Futile", every project that is challenged in all ways lends to the demise of this horrible industry.
Time is no longer on their side.
Intensify the wind shyster battle in every way.
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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