{"id":22768,"date":"2014-02-28T13:30:12","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T13:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/?p=323659"},"modified":"2014-02-28T13:30:12","modified_gmt":"2014-02-28T13:30:12","slug":"new-wind-ptc-proposal-would-dramatically-decrease-incentive-before-eliminating-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/new-wind-ptc-proposal-would-dramatically-decrease-incentive-before-eliminating-it\/","title":{"rendered":"New Wind PTC Proposal Would Dramatically Decrease Incentive Before Eliminating It"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_323668\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"360\"]\"Photo<\/a> Photo courtesy of Shutterstock<\/a>[\/caption]\n

If the latest proposal for the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) is approved, it would dramatically decrease the incentive’s amount and eventually phase it out altogether.<\/p>\n

Introduced on Thursday by U.S. House of Representative Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp<\/a>, (R-MI), the new proposal would retroactively reduce the credit from about 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour of produced energy to 1.5 cents. The incentive would then be eliminated in 10 years.<\/p>\n

Despite a nationwide scramble by businesses<\/a> hoping to qualify for the credit before it expired in December, Camp’s plan presents an unlikely scenario—that industry members actually said they won’t need the incentive much longer.<\/p>\n

“Businesses in the wind industry have represented to the committee that the industry could survive with a credit worth 60 percent of the current credit, implying that the credit provides a windfall that does not serve the intended policy,” the plan reads.<\/p>\n

Additionally, 50,000 people<\/a> signed a petition to renew the incentive and sent it to new Senate Finance Committee leader Ron Wyden, D-OR, just two weeks ago. Before that, the members of the Governors Wind Energy Coalition asked Congress to extend the PTC<\/a>. They centered their argument around an estimated 5,000-plus layoffs that took place within the industry in late 2012 because of the impending expiration of the PTC. The credit expired Dec. 31, 2012, but Congress temporarily extended<\/a> it two days later.<\/p>\n

“The legislation is highly unlikely to be enacted in its current form,” Jeff Davis, a partner at law firm Mayer Brown, told North American Wind Power<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, Davis told the publication that Camp’s stance that the Internal Revenue Service safe harbor requiring continuous construction for wind projects started by Dec. 31 is too liberal could have a “chilling effect on the wind industry and participants as to what it takes to satisfy the ‘commence construction’ requirements.”<\/p>\n

Camp’s proposal is part of a nearly 200-page draft of his tax reform act. According to his plan, the PTC provision would increase revenues by $9.6 billion.<\/p>\n

Visit EcoWatch’s <\/b>RENEWABLES<\/b><\/a> page for more related news on this topic.<\/b><\/p>\n

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