BIG NEWS FOR WND SHARE PRICE INCREASE It is official.
The bill language released tonight to implement the tax package that the White House negotiated with Congressional Republicans now includes a one-year extension in the deadline to start construction of new renewable energy projects to qualify for Treasury cash grants.
The bill also would allow a 100% depreciation bonus on new equipment placed in service after September 8, 2010 through the end of next year. However, the bonus could be claimed only if the taxpayer was not committed on or before September 8, 2010 under a binding contract to invest in the project. The bonus is a timing benefit. Instead of depreciating a project over the normal depreciation period, the entire cost could be deducted in the year the project goes into service.
The cash grant would be extended by simply changing dates in the existing program. It would not be turned into a tax refund program.
Owners of new renewable energy projects that are completed in 2009, 2010 or 2011, or that start construction in those three years and are completed by a deadline, would qualify for Treasury cash grants.
The deadlines to complete construction will not change. They remain the end of 2012 for wind farms, 2016 for solar and fuel cell projects, and 2013 for other renewables.
Because of the way the cash grant extension is drafted, developers who complete projects in 2011 would not have to worry about whether their projects started construction before 2009. This relieves a concern that some geothermal developers have who might have started construction of projects before 2009 that will not be completed until after 2010. Under the existing program, they would have been out of luck. As long as such projects are completed in 2011, they do not need to worry about having started construction too early.
The compromise bill now goes to the full Senate where it is expected to pass. Senator Reid, the Senate majority leader, has scheduled a vote for 3 p.m. on Monday on a motion to cut off an expected filibuster by Senators Bernie Sanders (I.-Vermont) and Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina). Once "cloture" is invoked, then the Senate will have another 100 hours of debate with further amendments possible in theory.