BETCs and the Oregon Legislature
Most of us who have been working with the alternative energy industries went into this session of the Oregon Legislature with fear and loathing. Given the budget crisis, it was easy to see the Business Energy Tax Credits (BETC) as a likely victim in the effort to shore up the state's sagging revenues. This hasn't been the case with respect to alternative energy manufacturing. In fact, the major reform of the BETC program (HB2472) pointedly rejected any attempt to weaken this valuable tool for recruiting these industries to the state. This bill passed out of the Revenue Committee with a 6-2 vote and one of the "no's" voted that way because he likes the program as it is and didn't want to make even the minor changes that were made (mostly impacting large wind generating projects and biomass projects).
The House Sustainability and Economic Development Committee expanded, somewhat, the use of BETC's with HB2180. This bill allows limited use of the BETC for co-generation projects and authorizes the Department of Energy to adopt rules that will clarify how one qualifies for a biomass project. It also extends the program to the purchasers of "plug-in hybrid vehicles." The net result of this bill should be to encourage legitimate projects in many of the alternative energy fields go forward, while allowing the Department to be selective by creating rules that will give them the ability to deny the credit on more questionable projects. This bill has passed the first committee and now has subsequent referral to House Revenue.
This is a great recognition on the part of the House of Representatives of the importance of alternative energy manufacturing in the long-term revenue picture for the State of Oregon. It is also standing about as firm as one could expect on the commitment to a "greener Oregon." In this budget climate that's about all we can hope for.
Post authored by Tom Hughes, consultant in the Government Relations and Public Policy Group.
