State senators announced Friday that they will introduce
five bills intended to advance Nebraska's renewable energy industry, increase
economic development and provide property tax benefits.
“These bills will help to incentivize growth and investment
in Nebraska over surrounding states and also remove barriers to renewable
energy development in our state,” said Sen. Jeremy Nordquist, who is sponsoring
one of the bills.
Nordquist’s bill would create a Nebraska production tax
credit for renewable electric generation facilities and would allow the credit
to be transferable. Surrounding states, including Iowa and Oklahoma, already
offer a credit against state income tax for each kilowatt hour of electricity
that a renewable energy generation facility produces.
“Without a state production tax credit in place, surrounding
states have a competitive advantage over Nebraska,” Nordquist said. “This would
put Nebraska on a level playing field by helping our state compete for projects
designed to export electricity out of the state as well as benefiting Nebraska
ratepayers by providing cheaper available electricity for in-state utilities.”
“A state production tax credit is essential to leveling the
playing field and enabling our state to become a net exporter of energy instead
of importer,” said Jon Crane, President of Bluestem Energy.
Sen. Al Davis will introduce a bill to broaden the existing
Nameplate Capacity Tax to include projects using solar, biomass or landfill gas
as the fuel source. In 2010, the Legislature created the Nameplate Capacity
Tax, which is a flat excise tax that replaces the heavily front-loaded personal
property tax that early wind energy projects paid.
“Years ago the Legislature introduced a bill to smooth the
property tax impact of a major wind development project on the taxing districts
in which the project took place. This was the Nameplate Capacity Tax and the
bill provided a longer term and more stable taxing structure for wind
projects,” Davis said. “My bill would extend this same tax status to solar and
other renewable energy projects, benefiting the provider and the taxing
district significantly since both will have a constant figure of taxes owed and
due on which they can build budgets.”
Sen. Ken Haar will introduce a bill to simplify the existing
process for the Nebraska Power Review Board to consider a renewable energy
export facility. Currently, state law requires a developer to have a power
purchase agreement with an out-of-state offtaker. While such an agreement
exists with most projects, many developers have reported that the requirement
to have the agreement before obtaining the approval created a perception that
Nebraska was not fully open for the business of renewable energy development.
"Nebraska has world class wind resources to provide
clean energy to the national market and in turn we will see rural economic
development here in Nebraska," Haar said.
The bill also proposes to remove barriers to
privately-funded transmission development, which Haar said will be necessary to
facilitate renewable energy development while minimizing impacts on in-state
ratepayers.
Sen. Heath Mello will introduce a bill to simplify the
Community-Based Energy Development, (CBED) process. C-BED projects must obtain
input from Nebraska companies, suppliers or pay revenues to Nebraska residents
that equal at least 25 percent of the project's revenues for the first 20
years.
“Simplifying the C-BED process further removes barriers to
renewable energy development in Nebraska,” Mello said.
Sen. Ken Schilz will introduce a bill that would require the
Nebraska Energy Office to prepare a comprehensive, forward-looking energy plan
for Nebraska by the end of 2015 that would be
updated every two years.
“The state needs to be in a position to take advantage of the
economic development opportunities associated with energy market changes and
advances in technology,” Schilz said.
“My bill to require the State Energy Office to develop an
energy plan will help put Nebraska in that position.”
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