A Carbon Tax. Amy Harder, who is joining us next week at SolarWakeup Live, has an interesting top 4 list of reasons why a carbon tax is hard to come by. The first two are primary examples of where we fall short as a solar industry. Political capital still remains on the sidelines for our sector but I hope that changes soon. Educating politicians of the political power of clean air and clean energy means showing them the voters will follow. Part of my conversation with Amy will be about this topic, where the lobbying on clean energy finds openings with republican legislators.
Problematic Tax Language. Language called the ‘Base Erosion Tax’ has shown up in the tax reform bill floating in DC currently. This complicated language appears to cause a quasi alternative minimum tax for multinational corporations. Amongst other things, it hurts the market for domestic deduction and credit investments like the solar ITC. The tax reform conversations are very frustrating because our code is used as an economic development tool. For centuries we have focused tax credits and deductions on sectors we want to see growth in. If we remove the supply of demand, by lowering tax liabilities, then growth in these sectors will slow as well.
The Massachusetts House. One of the things that I gathered from my interview with Senator Boncore was his description of the process to raise the NEM caps. While there was some view on how the Senate could move this forward, he sounded skeptical about the potential of getting the house to do the same. Listen to the interview to hear the skepticism yourself.
New Trade Info. The nuances are getting a bit legal but as I read between the lines, I see a less bureaucratic approach from the trade rep. In asking for the details that led to the complaint by bankrupt Suniva, now owned by an offshore hedge fund. The ask is to find “unforeseen developments” causing the alleged injury. With two prior complaints about dumping, there is hardly anything unforeseen and furthermore begs to ask why Suniva didn’t participate in those prior cases.
Another Coal Plant Closed. This time We Energies has announced the closure of 1.2GW coal plant in Wisconsin, to be replaced by gas and renewables.
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- Axios: Four big problems with a carbon tax
- Keith Martin: US tax equity market could shrink under Senate tax bill
- SolarWakeup: Future of Net Metering In Massachusetts with Senator Boncore, sponsor of the NEM Cap Bill
- Bloomberg: Trump Seeks Details on Solar Imports Before Setting Tariffs
- Journal Sentinel: We Energies’ coal-fired power plant in Pleasant Prairie to be shut down in 2018
- Utility Dive: Long Island muni proposes new compensation scheme for C&I solar
- GreenBiz: St. Louis pursues 100 percent clean energy, shrugs off coal opposition
- Washington Post: One of the country’s biggest oil fields just turned to an unexpected power source – Solar
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann