Now’s the Time for Congress to Provide Equitable Incentives for Renewable Energy

APPA Senior Vice President-Government Relations Joe Nipper submitted this post as a guest blogger for The Hill.

There’s no doubt about it: The U.S. MUST increase energy production from renewable and clean energy sources.

Congress has consistently provided privately-owned energy companies with tax-code based incentives for related investments.  Not-for-profit public power systems and rural electric cooperatives, which together serve 25 percent of America’s electric customers, have sought and will continue to seek, comparable incentives for this type of development.

One vehicle for achieving this parity was the Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI) program, created in 1992 to provide incentives for not-for-profit electric utilities.  Unfortunately, after its creation, the demand for the program far outpaced its funding, and not-for-profit utilities cried out for more funding to help them work toward state renewable portfolio standard requirements and climate change mitigation programs.  In the Administration’s recently released Fiscal Year 2009 Budget, REPI funding was completely and inexplicably eliminated.

Another vehicle for promoting renewable energy production has been the Clean Renewable Energy Bond (CREB) program, enacted in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.  Under this program, public power systems and rural electric cooperatives are given a financial incentive somewhat comparable to the production tax credits provided to for-profit companies.  In early 2007, Representative Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) introduced the Clean Renewable Energy for Public Power Act (CREPP), which sought to address concerns stemming from the CREB program’s allocation methodology and the program’s overly broad definition of “governmental body.