AEE Releases Clean Energy Election Guide For Nine State Governors’ Races

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

In case you’ve been living under a rock, there are elections coming up in a little less than a month. In nine states, there are contested races for governor. If you’ve been wondering how your candidate stacks up on clean energy issues, national business group Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) launched online scorecards to help you out this election season.

AEE will update candidates’ policy stands based on public statements and policy platforms adopted by Republican and Democratic nominees leading up to Election Day on Nov. 6. The project will be supported by targeted digital advertising in the nine states to help voters learn more about the energy policies of gubernatorial hopefuls.

Tracking and reporting policy positions of election candidates is the latest step in a nearly yearlong effort to engage with gubernatorial candidates to discuss the positive economic benefits of advanced energy and offer policy ideas for expanding advanced energy markets in each state. AEE has reached out to every nominee in the nine states for roundtable meetings with member companies, has shared its policy priorities, and released new data on advanced energy jobs. Nationally, the advanced energy industry employs 3.4 million U.S. workers.

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“Ensuring that candidates for governor appreciate the benefits that advanced energy can bring to their states, namely economic development and good jobs, has been a key focus of Advanced Energy Economy this year,” said J.R. Tolbert, vice president, state policy, at AEE. “We have found the candidates to be receptive to our message and hearing from the companies working in their state, with the result that a bipartisan slate of gubernatorial candidates across the states has adopted at least one of our priority positions.”

The following are summaries of what AEE found as they canvassed election candidates on both sides of the aisle concerning where they stood on a host of clean energy issues. For all of the races, Democrats tended to side with AEE’s policy recommendations, while Republicans either opposed them or were silent on them (with a few exceptions, as you’ll see below).

Far be it from SolarWakeup to tell you how to vote, but the message is clear if you’re interested at all in building a clean energy future. Judge for yourself from the information below – and then vote accordingly.

SCORECARD SUMMARY

Could The Coal/Nuke Bailout Be Dead? Definitely, Maybe

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

It’s been an article of faith among President Donald Trump supporters that he was going to – come hell or high water – “save” the coal industry. As part of that plan, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and his merry team have been working for months on a bailout plan that would use taxpayer money to support failing coal and nuclear plants.

The solar industry has been living with this sword of Damocles this entire time, just waiting for the inevitable announcement of a policy that seemed set in stone.

Well hold up – that stone may not quite be set yet, at least as far as Politico is concerned.

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According to insiders that spoke to the online news outlet on the condition of anonymity, the plan has run into opposition within the White House itself, specifically with members of the National Security Council and National Economic Council.

Word is that President Trump hasn’t officially weighed in against the proposal, but that he’s willing to go along with his advisors who oppose the plan, at least for now (as Politico notes, President Trump has been known to change his mind and that it is possible the plan could come back as part of his re-election strategy in 2020).

In a “too bad, so sad” moment, Politico reports that “the stalemate is frustrating the politically active coal mining companies that backed Trump’s presidential campaign and lobbied heavily for an economic lifeline for their industry.” (By economic lifeline, they mean a taxpayer-funded bailout.)

But as has been noted elsewhere, coal has been focusing its energies on fighting the wrong alternative. Solar and wind were never the monsters that were eating coal’s lunch; that was the natural gas industry. And once you riled up the oil-and-gas industries against you, your bailout was all but finished.

One has to feel a little sorry for West Virginia Congressional members, who took Trump at his word that he would do everything he could to “save” the coal industry. Politico discusses some of the hurt feelings that are now percolating after this most recent decisions to shelve the plan (at least temporarily):

“I’m trying to find the darn plan because I understand it’s gone from the Department of Energy over to the White House, and I don’t know who in the White House would be sitting on it for whatever reason,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told reporters last week.

This story could change at a moment’s notice if Trump suddenly changes his mind or decides to break with his closest advisors. But for now, it seems like the plan to rescue uneconomical coal and nuke plants with a taxpayer funded bailout may not come to fruition.

kWh Analytics Compiles List Of Active Tax-Equity Investors

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

As the tax incentives begin to wind down, it’s even more important than ever to be able to identify investors who can afford to take on sufficient tax equity to consummate solar projects.

To do the due diligence to figure out who is currently interested in using equity to fund the project, however, can often increase costs and render deals undoable.

Which is why having a company like kWh Analytics, a solar risk manager, do some portion of the work for you is such a boon. This morning, the company released its Solar Lendscape for Tax Equity, a free resource that profiles 28 tax equity investors. For developers looking to raise capital, the Solar Lendscape catalogs the industry’s most active debt and tax equity investors, including details on check size, target market segments, and product type.

The industry’s first Solar Lendscape was released in June 2018 and initially focused exclusively on providers of debt. Following industry interest, kWh Analytics developed Solar Lendscape for Tax Equity to also include an overview of tax equity investors.

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Project development is known to be a complex engagement in which the rules and variables regularly change. One of the most important variables for a developer to track is the availability of capital. Leveraging their experience working with investors, kWh Analytics built a simple, free tool to help developers assess the investor landscape and find the right partner for their projects.

“Solar Lendscape should prove a useful tool for developers trying to raise capital for their projects,” says Keith Martin, Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright. “It was inevitable that someone would create an internet portal to help with that process.”

Fast facts from the Solar Lendscape for Tax Equity:

Most organizations are using partnerships as a preferred structure.
Nearly a dozen investors are investing in community solar.
There was an influx of new tax equity providers in 2017, following the extension of the investment tax credit in 2016.

SEIA Issues Comprehensive Update To Solar Tax Guide

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Even the most experienced tax advisers may not know how to navigate the complex matter of solar tax incentives and credits. That’s why it’s important to have solar-specific experts weigh in on projects. In particular, with the investment tax credits starting to phase out, understanding tax incentives becomes all the more critical.

Oh, if only there were a guide of some sort that people could use to figure it out.

Enter the Solar Energy Industries Association, which has been putting together various versions of a guide for the last 20 years. Now they’ve released Version 9.0, the first comprehensive update of the SEIA Solar Tax Manual since 2016.

Among several updates, the new guide incorporates the commence construction guidance issued by the IRS earlier this year and includes the effects of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” enacted at the end of 2017.

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“Given all of the recent changes, the demand for this resource has never been greater,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. “This comprehensive document provides SEIA members a leg up, as it explains and fully outlines the potential tax benefits and deal structures for solar projects.”

Developed with the help of Keith Martin at Norton Rose Fullbright US LLP, the SEIA Solar Tax Manual covers tax credits for both commercial and residential solar projects, tax credit bonds, loan guarantees, low-interest loans and grants, state tax considerations, and more.

“The SEIA Tax Manual is a valuable SEIA member benefit,” said Lee Peterson, Senior Tax Manager for CohnReznick’s National Renewable Energy Practice. “It is incredibly valuable because it collects in one place the primary federal tax rules and concepts that drive the industry, while being easy for non-tax specialists to read and use.”

The SEIA Solar Tax Manual is a SEIA members-only benefit. To view the executive summary and learn more about becoming a SEIA member, go here.