The U.S. solar and wind sectors got shut out of the last coronavirus stimulus package. The battle is far from over.
By Jeff St. John for gtm
The U.S. renewables industry was left out of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed last week, but the battle is far from over.
Congress is already considering further legislation to rescue the economy from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and renewable energy groups are ready to bring their proposals back to the table.
As with the last stimulus bill, the industry’s plans center on securing changes to two federal policies: the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar power and the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind power.
Instead, they’re focusing on two key concepts. The first is extending “safe-harbor” deadlines for receiving the credits that may be thrown off track by the pandemic’s economic disruptions. The safe-harbor fix could potentially be made by the Treasury Department, without a need for congressional action, at least for solar.
The second is allowing the relatively small pool of tax equity investors in renewable projects to receive some of their value back as refundable credits or via “direct pay” provisions. Tax equity investors are likely to have lower tax liabilities amid an economic downturn and thus less “tax appetite.”
The ostensibly revenue-neutral aspect of these two requests could help differentiate solar and wind from requests for support in other areas like energy storage, and energy efficiency and electric vehicles. President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) opposed efforts to put clean energy support into the last stimulus package, incorrectly conflating them with the Green New Deal and other proposals from House Democrats.
