Clean Energy Businesses Need Policy Certainty

Article Read time:
Projects: Clean Energy Initiative
Clean Energy Businesses Need Policy Certainty

Although the United States has consistently been a leader in the clean energy sector, policy uncertainty remains a significant barrier to future growth and innovation in this competitive marketplace.  With more than $7.7 trillion expected to be invested in power plants by 2030, of which two-thirds will be directed to clean technologies, it is critical for Congress to provide clear policy guidance that allows businesses to invest in new opportunities.

Pew’s most recent Who’s Winning the Clean Energy Race? report details the competitiveness of the global clean energy industry, which secured $254 billion in private investment in 2013.  Falling technology prices have spurred new clean energy deployment in G-20 countries, with China the clear leader, followed by the United States and Japan. To continue the strong growth of clean energy in this country and to take advantage of emerging export opportunities in Central and South America, Asia, and Africa, however, U.S. businesses need an end to long-standing uncertainty about tax and other policies that affect their investment choices.

CLEN_RURAL_KM_RF_19105© iStock

The utilization of solar power for the reed houses of the Floating Islands of Lake Titicac.

At the end of 2013, several key clean energy tax policies expired, including the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind.  The on-again, off-again approach to critical incentives, including the PTC, has created an unstable policy environment that impedes investment in new employees and projects. The Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency Act (EXPIRE Act), currently pending in the U.S. Senate, would revive the PTC and other tax policies through 2015. 

Several senators are working to promote the EXPIRE Act and ensure that clean energy technologies are afforded the same tax treatment as conventional fuels. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) has offered an amendment to the act that would allow clean efficiency technologies, including waste heat to power, to qualify for incentives that are already afforded to other renewable energy technologies. 

Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) have proposed that clean energy no longer be barred from participating in Master Limited Partnerships, which are investment mechanisms that traditional energy industries have used to attract nearly $490 billion in private financing since the 1980s.

Parity and certainty are hallmarks of good public policy and are critical to the ability of any industry to plan for future growth. These principles have been endorsed by thousands of Americans who recently asked their representatives to pass the EXPIRE Act, including provisions to extends the PTC, provide equal treatment to industrial efficiency technologies, and extends to clean energy the same ability as fossil fuels to be included in Master Limited Partnerships. 

Congress should respond to the needs of the clean energy business community and act on what is clear to diverse groups of Americans: It should pass the EXPIRE Act with key amendments in order to secure the economic, national security, and environmental benefits of this important global industry.

America’s Overdose Crisis
America’s Overdose Crisis

America’s Overdose Crisis

Sign up for our five-email course explaining the overdose crisis in America, the state of treatment access, and ways to improve care

Sign up
Quick View
America’s Overdose Crisis

America’s Overdose Crisis

Sign up for our five-email course explaining the overdose crisis in America, the state of treatment access, and ways to improve care

Sign up
RELATED
Tags
Energy
Projects
Clean Energy Initiative

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

A large group of people in formal or traditional attire stands together on a stage, with a digital background depicting marine life and the large text “WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.”

Article

April 10, 2024 WTO Needs to Redouble Its Effort on Fishing Subsidies
A man in a winter hat and sunglasses kneels on a rocky shoreline in front of a campfire, holding a metal mug with gloved hands. Behind him, in the water, a motorboat is moored to the shore. Cliffs rise on both sides of the water.

Article

April 4, 2024 Why Newfoundland’s South Coast Fjords Are Sacred
A landscape with mountains and clouds. BLM Rule Puts Conservation, Other Land Uses on Equal Footing

MORE FROM PEW

A presentation being given by a businesswoman to a group of participants at a business conference. Four Plan Features Can Boost 'Retirement Readiness'
An illustration of a couple holding hands walking away from an outline of houses behind them Pathways to Homeownership: Housing in America
A photograph of City Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia to Address Pressing Policy Challenges
A bright blue T-cell infected by HIV is engulfed by hundreds of yellow virions. Pew Researcher Seeks to Crack Code on HIV Cure
Composite image of modern city network communication concept

Learn the Basics of Broadband from Our Limited Series

Sign up for our four-week email course on Broadband Basics
Quick View

How does broadband internet reach our homes, phones, and tablets? What kind of infrastructure connects us all together? What are the major barriers to broadband access for American communities?

Pills illustration
Pills illustration

What Is Antibiotic Resistance—and How Can We Fight It?

Sign up for our four-week email series The Race Against Resistance.
Quick View
Pills illustration

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, also known as “superbugs,” are a major threat to modern medicine. But how does resistance work, and what can we do to slow the spread? Read personal stories, expert accounts, and more for the answers to those questions in our four-week email series: Slowing Superbugs.