Pew, Partners, Urge Federal Agencies to Expand Incentive for Offshore Wind

The Pew Charitable Trusts—along with environmental and conservation groups—sent a letter on Oct. 23, 2023, to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) urging them to expand the availability of the Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus and further encourage clean energy projects.

The bonus, created by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, provides additional tax relief for developers who locate clean energy projects in “energy communities,” which include areas that have historically depended on jobs and tax revenues tied to fossil energy production, in addition to “brownfield sites”—properties that contain or may contain a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

Offshore wind production is set to play a major role in the expansion of clean energy, especially given the national goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. The letter encourages the Treasury and the IRS to support that target by broadening eligibility for the bonus credit to include more energy properties and assets—particularly marshaling ports and operation and maintenance port facilities—that are essential to the build-out and operation of offshore wind. Adjusting the Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus would support job creation and economic opportunity for local communities and help remediate pollution to improve the lives of people on the front line of industrial operations.

The letter’s signees included the following:

League of Conservation Voters

National Audubon Society

National Wildlife Federation

National Resources Defense Council

Ocean Conservancy

Pacific Environment

The Pew Charitable Trusts

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