The Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) has joined over 580 companies and organizations urging U.S. Congress to pass legislation to extend expired and expiring tax incentives benefiting clean energy technologies as soon as possible this year.
Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association and a BCSE board member, comments, ‘American wind power is building momentum right now, but Congress has yet to pass these critical tax incentives, and the clock is ticking.
‘The U.S. wind energy industry has rebounded from the loss of 23,000 jobs in 2013 due to policy uncertainty, and we can grow to support 380,000 jobs by 2030 with stable policy,’ continues Kiernan. "That's why we join hundreds of other voices in the business community to call on Congress to take action now."
In July, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee passed a bill to revive dozens of tax credits that expired at the end of last year, including the production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit – the wind industry's chief legislative vehicles. The PTC provides a $0.023/kWh tax credit for each hour of electricity produced.
The bill, which still awaits consideration on the full Senate floor, would retroactively extend the various tax credits for two years from Jan. 1, 2015, through Dec. 31, 2016.
"Businesses and investors need stable, predictable federal tax policy to create jobs, invest capital, and deploy pollution-reducing energy technologies," writes the coalition in its letter. "Allowing the lapsed clean energy tax provisions to languish undermines investor confidence and jeopardizes continued economic and environmental benefits."
The full letter – as well as the list of signers, which include an array of clean energy groups – is available here.
