Dive Brief:
- The Senate Finance Committee is expected to consider a bill package including renewable energy tax credits, reports E&E Daily, and advocates are ramping up efforts to ensure they endure the fight.
- Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) advocated for the credit saying "good tax policy requires certainty that can only come from long-term predictable tax laws."
- There is no firm date for markup on the bill, meaning lobbying efforts for renewable credits will continue.
Dive Insight:
The investment tax credit on on renewanle energy was never meant to be permanent, but the senator who authored it says the incentive is still necessary. In a letter last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley advocated for the credit, which has helped push his state to third in the nation in wind power production.
"I’ve worked to provide as much certainty as possible to grow the domestic wind industry. I know firsthand the boom and bust cycle that exists for renewable energy producers when Congress fails to extend these critically important tax incentives," Grassley wrote in a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
"This credit won’t go on forever. It was never meant to, and it shouldn’t," Grassley wrote.
While there is no set vote on the renewables tax credit, other advocates are gearing up. The Solar Energy Industries Association has built a form for advocates to send letters of support.
According to Grassley's letter, Iowa has benefited from the credit and now ranks third in the nation in terms of installed wind capacity, which provides more almost 30% of the state's electricity, while supporting more than 6,000 jobs.
'Nationally, the wind energy industry supports more than 73,000 jobs. With jobs and the economy at the top of Americans’ concerns, it would be a travesty for our new majority to put these jobs at risk," Grassley wrote.
