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LPPC: Strong
Support for Cantwell Legislation
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bob Bonitati
May 10, 2007
302-226-0482
The Large Public Power Council (LPPC) has
stated its "strong support" for the Clean Energy Investment Assurance Act
of 2007 being introduced by Senator Maria Cantwell. The bill would provide
federal incentives for publicly owned utilities in producing renewable
energy sources.
In a letter to Senate Finance Committee member, Senator Maria Cantwell,
LPPC Chair Joseph Beal, asserted that, "Because public power is
tax-exempt, we are not able to directly utilize the renewable energy
production tax credit which is the primary federal tax incentive aimed at
promoting renewable power. The Clean Energy Investment Assurance Act of
2007 provides consumer-owned utilities with an important federal incentive
for investing in renewable power."
Congress first recognized the need to create a companion tool for public
power by adopting Clean Energy Renewable Bonds (CREBs) as part of the
Energy Policy Act of 2005. "From a large public power perspective," the
LPPC told Cantwell, "our greatest concern with the existing CREBs program
is that its benefits go overwhelmingly to small utilities. The changes
made by the Clean Energy Investment Assurance Act of 2007 will remedy some
of these issues, while also encouraging more investment in non carbon
emitting resources. We support the five year extension of the program,
although we support an elimination of the volume cap, we are glad that the
bill significantly raises it to $5 billion annually."
The LPPC letter also thanked Senator Cantwell for "acknowledging that the
US Treasury's smallest-to-largest project allocation methodology has made
it difficult for these bonds to be an effective incentive for large scale
projects." The LPPC pledged its support to work with Senator Cantwell in
refining the technical and allocation issues associated with the CREBs
program.
The LPPC's membership includes 24 of the nation's largest publicly owned,
not-for-profit energy systems. Members are located in 11 states and
provide power to some of the largest cities in the country including Los
Angeles, Seattle, Omaha, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, Orlando and
Austin. ###
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