Dive Brief:

• The Oklahoma Senate voted 40-3 this week to roll back state tax credits for wind production, sending the measure to the desk of Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who is likely to sign it.
• The Oklahoman reports House Bill 2298 has strong support in both chambers. The House previously approved the bill 74-24, after Fallin requested the legislation in February.
• The zero emissions credit for wind production is $0.005/kWh, and is scheduled to phase out in 2021. If the governor signs the measure, it would end July 1.

Dive Insight:

Oklahoma appears likely to eliminate credits for wind production, a measure that will add millions to the state's coffers and which appears to have support from the wind industry itself.

Jeffrey Clark, president of The Wind Coalition, told the Oklahoman that the incentives have been "incredibly beneficial, but we remain the first and only industry to offer to phase out its incentives."

Opposition to the early phase-out includes concerns about the message it may send to other industries with access to similar subsidies. 

Gov. Fallin is expected to sign the measure. Her executive budget proposed in February called for the early phaseout of wind incentives she says are no longer necessary. 

"This industry was incentivized sufficiently to now be a major player in the Oklahoma energy industry, and a major winner of now-unnecessary incentives," the budget read. An ad valorem exemption for wind production will cost state residents $40 million this year, according to the state.

The wind industry's offer to give up its tax credits reflects the resource's competitiveness with other generation technologies on an unsubsidized basis. 

The most recent levelized cost of energy analyses from Lazard estimate the LCOE of land-based wind to be between $32/MWh and $62/MWh, lower than that of a combined cycle natural gas plant, which came in at between $48/MWh and $78/MWh.