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tax credits

Jun 23
Love138

Grid-Stabilizing Parts of the ITC Spared, For Now

By Energy Rant No Comments
At the close of my Rant last week, Avoiding a Downshift Tailspin with the ITC On Storage, I suggested the Senate spare the investment tax credit (ITC) for electric and thermal energy storage in its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). Canceling the ITC for electric and thermal storage would doom the electric grid and force regional transmission organizations to call for rolling outages to prevent a full-blown blackout. Lo and behold, on Monday, while the Downshift Rant was under review by my marketing counsel, I learned that the Senate Finance Committee did almost exactly what I suggested…
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Feb 12
Love0

Read My Lips – The Only Way to Carbon Tax

By Energy Rant One Comment
Last August I discussed a truce from the left to the right on climate change – Climate Change IV, Diverse Thought Anyone? Last week, to advance the story, I alluded to further potential solutions described by Grist and the "eco right's" bold idea to advance a carbon tax as a solution. Here we go! There are a bunch of reasons a carbon tax is a bad idea, but to my surprise, I was able to conceive a carbon tax plan that may work, be revenue neutral, and not be corrupt. A New Tax Meets With Conservative Principles? First, let me…
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Nov 06
Love0

Why Energy Efficiency? – Five Findings

By Energy Rant No Comments
This year ACEEE published a three-part series on why people and companies invest in energy efficiency. First, they provide some guesstimates of energy efficiency investment in the United States. Their researched estimates vary from $60 billion to about $120 billion, annually. Is this a reasonable guesstimate? According to their State Scorecard, program spending on natural gas and electric demand-side management programs held steady at about $7.5 billion in 2016. Check. The International Energy Agency pegs worldwide investment at $231 billion and about $40 billion in the U.S. Check. As a laugh test, $100 billion is a measly 0.5% of the…
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May 01
Love0
Wind Production Tax Credit

Capacity Market v Energy Market – What’s the Diff?

By Energy Rant 3 Comments
We are taking a break from exergy this week, and we are going to examine what is happening in distorted electricity markets around the country. This will be somewhat of a sequel to Regulating Deregulation and Wind's Other Big Subsidy. Too much of a good thing, or as they say, unintended consequences, is pushing the grid in some places toward instability. By the way, I scoff at the term “unintended consequences.” There are only two types of consequences: intended and ignorant ones.Utility Dive notes that Texas (Electricity Reliability Council of Texas – ERCOT) and the Southwest Power Pool are the…
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