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OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Wind-energy tax credit in focus
A House Ways and Means Committee panel will gather for a hearing on various expiring tax provisions.
“The hearing will explore ideas on the framework that Congress should use to evaluate tax extenders, the principles of good tax policy that Congress should apply during this evaluation, and the specific metrics against which Congress should test the merits of particular provisions,” the committee said.
While there’s no promise that the wind credits will come up, several members of the Select Revenue Measures subcommittee hail from states where the industry has a foothold.
The credit is crucial to the wind sector — new installations have dropped sharply when the credit has lapsed, which last happened in 2004. The credit is slated to lapse at the end of the year if it is not extended.
But while the incentive has traditionally had bipartisan support, its extension this year is up in the air. The incentives are tethered to wider election-year debates over tax policy and the extension of various other expiring tax code provisions.
NEWS BITES:
Chu: Renewables will compete even with low natural-gas prices
Chu told a New York TV station that the price of renewable electricity sources — including solar, which faces cost barriers — will be fully competitive with fossil fuels within 10-15 years.
“It is not a question of renewable energy at higher cost, clean energy at higher cost, or fossil energy,” he said in an interview that aired on the program New York Now. “It is really a question of, this is coming, the technology is developing, and how do we begin to integrate that into our electrical system.”
The interview, taped during Chu’s recent visit to New York, also wades into his views on hydraulic fracturing — he says it's possible to be done safely — and other matters. Check it out here.
Boehner’s highway plan leaves Keystone question
Over at The Hill's transportation blog, Keith Laing reports that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is floating a six-month extension of federal transportation funding if House-Senate talks on a sweeping new measure collapse.
But it wasn’t immediately clear if House Republicans would seek to include language approving the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline in a potential extension.
The last House-passed extension included Keystone, but the Senate transportation package omits it, and the controversial project has become one of the sticking points in bicameral talks.
A spokesman for Boehner didn’t say whether the Speaker would push to include Keystone in a half-year extension, noting only that “we’ll see.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Check out these Thursday E2-Wire items ...
— Data show U.S. spring was hottest on record
— Senators say tax code tweak would boost renewable energy
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