The “big, beautiful” budget bill passed by the House of Representatives, if enacted in its current form, will eliminate clean-electricity tax credits, including for wind and solar power, starting in 2029. It will require projects seeking to receive those subsidies to begin construction within 60 days of the legislation becoming law, and to start operating by 2028.
This is great news for both fiscal sanity and energy reality, both of which have been in short supply for far too long.
This “temporary” tax credit was first enacted in 1992 to help the then-nascent onshore wind and solar industries.
Congress always set it to expire years into the future, providing ample opportunities for politicians to extend and enlarge it. They have done so 12 times.
The Investment Tax Credit used by offshore wind developers like the Norwegian government-owned Equinor, which is relying on it to build Empire Wind off the coast of New York, has been around even longer — it was first enacted almost a half-century ago. But the ITC was greatly expanded under President Joe Biden’s ill-named Inflation Reduction Act, enabling offshore wind developers to qualify for up to 50% of their construction costs.