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GOVERNORS PUSH FOR TWO-YEAR EXTENSION
A bipartisan foursome of governors yesterday urged lawmakers to pass a two-year extension of the PTC, as in the Senate tax extenders package. “While we recognize there is support in Congress for phasing down these various tax incentives for all sectors in a comprehensive tax reform package, until we do, we must allow the nation’s wind industry to compete with other energy sources that also receive federal support.” [ read more … ]
Despite opposing goals, greens and conservatives cite PTC to urge defeat of tax package
The Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, a bipartisan group of governors from windy states, also sent a letter to Capitol Hill yesterday urging at least a two-year extension and pointing to benefits in their states from the PTC. With so little time remaining before Congress is set to adjourn next week, PTC supporters face long odds of securing a longer extension before the end of this year. However, if the one-year bill ends up in defeat, it could create additional pressure for Senate Democrats to push for a two-year extension of all the credits in order to prevent complications on this year’s tax filings. [ read more … ]
Governors pitch PTC extension
A group of US state governors is urging Congress to approve a multi-year extension of the production tax credit and investment tax credit as soon as possible. A two-year PTC and ITC renewal is included in the bipartisan Senate EXPIRE Act. “Our states are national leaders in wind power,” said the coalition chairman, vice-chairman and former chairmen in a letter to House and Senate leaders, citing significant gains in South Dakota, Washington, Oregon and Iowa. [ read more … ]
Governors Urge House and Senate Leadership to Extend Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit
“Our states are national leaders in wind power. Today, 26 percent of South Dakota’s power generation comes from wind. In Washington State, developers added 2,800 megawatts of wind energy between 2001-2012… Oregon generates over 12 percent of its electricity from wind… In Iowa, where 27 percent of the state’s electricity generation comes from wind, MidAmerican Energy made the largest capital investment in the state’s history — building a wind farm that will add over $2 billion to Iowa’s economy.” “These achievements are directly attributable to the PTC — a successful federal policy that, along with supportive state policies, continues to drive private investment in our states. [I]n states that produce at least 7 percent of their electricity from wind, electricity prices have decreased over the last 5 years, while all other states have seen their electricity prices increase by nearly 8 percent.” [ read more … ]
PTC phaseout ‘minor’ part of failed talks, could return in 2015 — key lawmaker
For now, the House is preparing to move a more modest extenders bill to retroactively renew tax breaks that expired last year through the end of this year. Brady predicted that package would pass the House when it comes to a vote tomorrow, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the top Republican on the Finance Committee, said the Senate would have no choice but to adopt the one-year extension. Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who will hand the gavel to Hatch in January, said he is not ready to accept the House bill, which he said would be too hard on working-class people. Wyden moved a two-year extenders bill through committee on a bipartisan vote earlier this year, and he has said that he would prefer that approach. [ read more … ]
Opposition bloc of states calls EPA’s power plant rule ‘fundamentally flawed’
Thousands of comments poured into U.S. EPA yesterday as states, agencies, industry groups and stakeholders of all kinds raced to meet the agency’s comment deadline on its proposed rule for power-sector carbon emissions. The submissions, which EPA will digest as it works to formulate a final rule, touch on everything from the moral imperative of climate action to the minutiae of combined-cycle gas-fired power plants. But a much blunter message emerged from a number of states yesterday, one that put the often complex analysis of the rule in relatively simple terms. [ read more … ]
FERC member blasts proposed EPA rule over costs, grid reliability
A Republican member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission blasted U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan yesterday, warning that the proposal could cost hundreds of billions of dollars and pose complex reliability problems. FERC Commissioner Philip Moeller said his concerns about EPA’s proposal for curbing carbon emissions at existing power plants have only grown in recent months as grid operators and other stakeholders have stepped forward, and questioned whether EPA is looking closely enough at challenges with implementing the proposal. [ read more … ]
Court drops utility’s challenge to FERC reconnect order for Iowa farm
A federal appeals court today dismissed a request by a Midwest electric utility to overturn a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order requiring it to reconnect with a farm that refuses to pay for electricity. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that it does not have authority to review the FERC order at issue in Midland Power Cooperative v. FERC. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.