In order to incentivize the development of critically essential transmission infrastructure in America and enhance effectivity of the method, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, not too long ago launched two payments:
- The Grid Resiliency Tax Credit Act would set up a 30% funding tax credit score (ITC) for qualifying electrical power transmission line property and grid-enhancing applied sciences.
- The Facilitating America’s Siting of Transmission and Electric Reliability (FASTER) Act would streamline Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) backstop siting authority, permitting the fee to authorize National Interest Electric Transmission Facilities.
“To meet our nation’s full potential as a global leader in the clean energy transition and to replace rapidly aging electric infrastructure, we are going to need to invest in building many more transmission lines,” says Heinrich. “Tax incentives have sent a powerful signal to private investors to put their capital behind new wind and solar projects. We need to send a similarly strong and long-term financial signal that it is worth the time and effort it takes to steer massive transmission infrastructure projects all the way from planning to construction.”
The Grid Resiliency Tax Credit Act would supply a 10-year tax credit score. Starting in 2024, all qualifying transmission tasks which are positioned in service would qualify for the credit score and any qualifying undertaking that begins building earlier than the tip of 2033 may declare the credit score. Taxpayers additionally would be capable of monetize the credit score underneath the Inflation Reduction Act’s new tax-credit transferability provisions.
Currently, it may well take as much as a decade or extra to construct new high-voltage, interregional transmission strains. The FASTER Act would expedite transmission siting and allowing practices, with out compromising environmental requirements. It would supply certainty to transmission undertaking builders, require significant engagement with personal landowners and ship tangible financial advantages for native communities, states and counties.
Says Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE): “We should dramatically develop and improve America’s electrical grid to make sure reliability within the face of more and more frequent extreme climate occasions, decrease prices for the nation’s electrical energy customers, and absolutely understand the renewable progress anticipated underneath the Inflation Reduction Act.
“[These proposals] will improve the needlessly complicated process of siting interstate transmission infrastructure here in the United States and will bring us closer to a 21st century macro grid capable of delivering the clean energy future Americans want and deserve.”
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