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Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman have sponsored “The American Power Act” (“APA”), a comprehensive energy and climate change bill.  For a summary of the bill, please visit this alert. Among other things, the APA includes significant incentives for the nuclear power industry, including several tax provisions intended to encourage construction of new nuclear power plants. The APA would also establish an expedited procedure for issuing construction and operating licenses for new nuclear reactors, expand the federal loan guarantee program for nuclear energy development, and fund spent fuel recycling research. [Read more →]

The U.S. Treasury Department’s successful cash grant program will expire Dec. 31, 2010. Section 1603 in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 established the new grant program that allows a renewable project owner to choose a one-time grant equal to 30% of the construction and installation costs for the facility. The facility must be placed in service by the end of this year or construction must have begun in 2009 or started this year and be completed by end of 2013. [Read more →]

The recently-enacted Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872) (the “Reconciliation Act”) provides statutory rules for applying the economic substance doctrine. See Section 7701(o) of the Code, as amended by section 1409(a) of the Reconciliation Act. The Reconciliation Act defines the economic substance doctrine as the common law doctrine under which the federal income tax benefits of a transaction are not allowable if the transaction does not have economic substance or lacks a business purpose. New Section 7701(o) is effective for transactions entered into on or after March 31, 2010. [Read more →]

A U.S. Treasury Department ruling could create a market for funds that would back renewable-power projects using capital from wealthy individuals.

While there’s no word of specific vehicles in the works, Phil Spector, a New York-based partner at law firm Troutman Sanders, believes they will start hitting the market soon. His colleagues plan to discuss that prediction at Infocast’s three-day Solar Power Finance & Investment Summit 2010, which kicked off March 17 at the Rancho Bernardo Inn Resort in San Diego. [Read more →]

The financial crisis spawned two major stimulus packages in the U.S. that have reshaped the federal policy landscape for renewable power.  Most notably, qualifying solar, wind and other renewable energy generation projects can choose either a 30% investment tax credit (“ITC”) or a 30% cash grant in lieu of the ITC (so-called “section 1603 grants”). [Read more →]