US House Ways and Means panel releases details of energy tax reform
plans
Washington (Platts)--6May2013/342 pm EDT/1942 GMT
The architects of Congress' looming tax policy reform have a lot of
choices when it comes to energy tax breaks and federal subsidies, the US
House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee said Monday.
"The broad proposals include suggestions to eliminate all energy tax
expenditures and adopt the Fair Tax or finance tax reform by imposing a
carbon tax," the committee said in a report. "Some slightly more narrow
comments call for eliminating all tax expenditures benefiting renewable
technologies or replacing them with a technology neutral approach."
The 558-page report summarized current tax laws and suggestions for
reforms, outlines dozens of potential changes to the federal tax code
for oil and gas production, credits for wind and solar productions and
tax structures for renewable energy projects.
The report summarized more than 1,300 submissions from stakeholders to
Ways and Means on the tax reform efforts, Representatives Dave Camp, a
Michigan Republican and the committee's chairman, and Sander Levin, a
Michigan Democrat and the committee's ranking member, said in a
statement.
"The committee will dig into its details over the coming weeks," Camp
and Levin said in a statement.
The report examines suggestions made to 11 separate working groups,
including the Working Group on Energy, which is chaired by
Representatives Kevin Brady, Republican-Texas, and Mike Thompson,
Democrat-California.
These suggestions include keeping various tax preferences for oil and
gas companies such as the enhanced oil recovery credit, the deduction
for intangible drilling costs and the percentage depletion deduction in
place. Other comments suggest eliminating these preferences entirely.
Other suggestions include eliminating or extending more long-term the
production tax credit for renewables, including wind and solar. Other
suggestions called for extending this PTC to cover waste heat, biogas,
renewable chemicals and other bio-based products.
Last month, the Senate Finance Committee released a 15-page paper which
outlined dozens of similar options for revamping tax policies that have
long applied to electricity generators, oil and gas drillers and other
players in the energy sector.
--Brian Scheid,
brian_scheid@platts.com ; Edited by Richard Rubin,
richard_rubin@platts.com
© 2013 Platts, The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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