Wind Tax Credit Extended

 Wind Tax Credit Extended. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Some work is getting done during this lame duck session and according to Jessica Isaacs, Senior Policy Analyst  with the American Wind Energy Association one of those items is an important tax credit for wind energy producers.

ISAACS: This really is going to have a big impact on our communities. 2010 has been a slow year for the wind industry and we have definitely seen some slow down but we would have seen even more slowdown in 2011 if we hadn’t gotten this 1603 convertible tax credit extended potentially in 2011. What the 1603 tax credit does is to allow companies to finance projects that might not have otherwise been able to move forward due to lack of financing options.

Isaacs says they hope to see a greater number of projects in the new year.

ISAACS: This year in Washington and Oregon we have seen a slow down in installations compared to 2009 and we’re hoping this package will bring 2011 installation levels back up, put more workers back at the construction sites erecting turbines in Washington and Oregon and putting more manufacturing workers to work in the manufacturing facilities in those states.

She discusses how wind projects utilize the tax credit.

ISAACS: The program is actually very simple to take advantage of. In order to take advantage of the 1603 convertible tax credit the developer simply submits paperwork at the end of the project to the Treasury Department and that’s an automatic program. The fact that the program is automatic is one of the key parts of the program. If it was not automatic it would not be a very reliable way to finance projects.

She says this really should help bring more jobs into the industry.

ISAACS: In 2011 when we are bringing on additional projects we expect that an additional 50% over what we were expecting in the business as usual scenario will be built next year so that means 50% more construction jobs, 50% more jobs operating and maintaining the wind projects and even more jobs in the manufacturing sector because it gives them a little bit of an outlook to know that there is going to be demand for the rest of the year.

For more details on 1603 convertible tax credit visit the American Wind Energy Associations web site at awea.org and click on the newsroom.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.