Merrill L. Kramer

  • March 28, 2022

Slimmed Down Energy Tax and Social Spending Package Targeted for Vote Before August

Clean Energy, Development Incentives, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Tax, Tax Credits
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A slimmed down version of the Build Back Better bill is reportedly in discussions between the Biden Administration and Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va). The Build Back Better bill has been stalled in Congress due to opposition by Senator Manchin. The new discussions come as welcomed news as the wind production tax credit is set to expire this year, and the solar investment tax credit continues to phase down. Current law also does not include tax incentives for stand-alone energy storage projects.  Experts generally agree that prices for renewable energy development will increase absent legislative action.

According to the Washington Post, Senator Manchin has said that he would seek to bring the package to a vote prior to the August recess. Following the recess it becomes more difficult to move major legislation in advance of midterm elections

The bill is said to include an extension of the solar investment tax credits and wind production tax credits along with other clean energy provisions contained in the

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  • November 17, 2021

Key Energy Provisions in Biden Administration’s $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Clean Energy, Energy Storage, Hydropower, Renewable Energy, Solar Power
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On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed into law the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Act earlier passed both Houses on a bipartisan basis. In conjunction with its passage, President Biden issued an Executive Order outlining the Administration’s priorities for dispersing monies from the infrastructure law, and establishing a task force that will coordinate the law’s implementation among federal agencies and state, local, and tribal governments. The task force will be jointly headed by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Brian Deese, Director of the President’s National Economic Council, and will include the heads of the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Council, the White House Climate Policy Office, and Cabinet members from the affected federal agencies, including the Departments of Transportation, Interior, Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The law represents the first part of the Administration’s two-pronged plan for federal investment in U.S. infrastructure. The second part, a proposed $1.85 trillion social spending

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  • September 20, 2021

New York State Revises Solar and Wind Property Tax Calculator

Financing, Tax
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On September 17, 2021, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance came out with a second (revised) preliminary appraisal model for assessing solar and wind energy projects. Its initial preliminary appraisal model was issued on August 2, 2021.  Comments on both proposed property tax assessment models are due on October 1, 2021.

All local taxing jurisdictions in New York will require the use of the tax assessment model to assess renewable energy projects.  Publication and use of a uniform methodology for assessing renewable projects is one of several recent changes to the New York Real Property Tax Laws (RPTL) that the state recently enacted to promote solar, wind, and other renewable energy projects.

One of those changes was requiring local tax assessors to adopt a uniform income capitalization, or discounted cash flow, valuation approach to assess renewable energy property. An income capitalization approach values the project using the net present value of a project’s future cash flows using

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  • July 08, 2020

NY Appellate Court Enforces 60-Day Deadline for Local Governments to Require PILOT Agreements from Solar Developers

Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Tax
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Decision binding on all local state taxing authorities

The Appellate Division of the New York courts has affirmed that a local governmental taxing authority must notify a solar project developer within 60 days from when the developer first notifies the authority of its plans to construct a solar facility that the authority intends to require the developer to enter into a Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT Agreement, or the taxing authority foregoes its right to require a PILOT Agreement from the project developer. Matter of Laertes Solar, LLC v Assessor of the Town of Harford (2020 NY Slip Op 02302).

Most cities, counties, school districts, and other local government authorities in New York have authority to tax real property.  Local governments often use their taxing power to assess solar energy facilities being developed in their jurisdictions as “improvements” to the property.

As part of New York’s concerted effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the

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  • November 28, 2018

Massachusetts SMART Solar Program Opens

Renewable Energy, Solar Power
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On November 26, 2018 the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program opened for applications.

SMART is a new renewable incentive program established to support development of 1600 MW of new solar projects in Massachusetts. The program provides renewable energy project owners with a tariff based incentive that is paid directly by the utility company to the project owner, plus additional location- and customer-based incentives.

To qualify for the program you must file an application with the State Solar Program Administrator. Eligible projects will need to be interconnected to one of the three investor owned utility companies in Massachusetts: Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil. Each utility has established capacity blocks that decline in incentives with each block. The blocks are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

The initial application period opened on November 26 and will continue through November 30, 2018. All applications received before midnight November 30, 2018 will be

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