Geothermal Industry Happy With Last-Minute Congressional Action
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After months and months of delay (what’s new with Congress these days), important clean energy decisions were finally made by our Congressional representatives just before midnight. The most notable was probably the extension of the wind power production tax credit (PTC) — an article on that is coming in a few moments. However, there’s also some important news regarding the geothermal industry. Here’s a full statement from the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) on that:
The Geothermal Energy Association applauds Congress for adopting today, as part of bi-partisan tax legislation, important changes in the underlying terms of the federal tax incentives for new geothermal and other renewable power projects. The modification adopted, which allows projects to qualify for the production tax credit based upon being under construction, represents an approach to renewable tax incentives that will work more effectively for geothermal and other renewable power technologies that have longer development lead times.
“The Geothermal Energy Association estimates that new geothermal power projects in as many as a dozen states could be stimulated to move forward this year as a result of this change,” said GEA Executive Director Karl Gawell. “Congress’ action will spur significant new employment and sustain geothermal industry growth. Consumers and utilities will benefit, as well, because developers will have greater certainty about whether the credit will be available for their project.”
Gawell continued: “We applaud the support demonstrated by Congress and the Administration for policies to support growth in geothermal power, and look forward to working with both as they examine longer-term policies to sustain innovation and growth in this emerging industry. In particular we wish to applaud the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Leadership for initiating this important change in the Production Tax Credit.”
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