Wind businesses urge Congress to keep wind energy tax credit phase-out
More than 200 companies in the American wind power supply chain sent a letter on Wednesday to members of the U.S. House of Representatives urging them to retain a phase-out of the wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC).
The businesses sent the letter to leaders of the House tax reform effort and copied leaders of the Senate effort, who they said are “honoring the preexisting tax reform deal” by leaving the phase-out intact.
The deal, formed in 2015, phased out the wind energy PTC and ITC from 2015 through 2019.
The current language of the draft House bill has created uncertainty for wind businesses that have already signed contracts to invest in U.S. infrastructure, the wind businesses said.
“Wind energy went first on tax reform, voluntarily agreeing to a phase-out to give the industry time to adjust,” Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), said. “We support the goal of making America a better place to do business, and this retroactive rule change runs counter to that. Every day that goes by until this flawed House language is fixed reduces business for American workers and factories.”
AWEA has estimated that the House’s version of the tax reform bill would threaten 60,000 American jobs and $50 billion in private investment, mostly in rural areas.
“Businesses can’t go back in time to qualify for financing under the new rules,” Kiernan said. “So under the House version they would either suffer a retroactive tax hike, or be forced to walk away and break contracts for manufacturing and construction work that thousands of American workers are counting on.”
