Solar and wind excise tax dropped from Senate GOP megabill
Text released by the Senate Rules Committee no longer includes a new tax on solar and wind projects if some of their components come from China.
The excise tax had been a last-minute addition to the bill and was made public over the weekend. Many in the industry had warned it could kill future projects.
The removal of the last minute provision comes as Republicans struggled to keep their coalition together — and particularly sought to secure the vote of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
Murkowski, along with Iowa Republican Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, offered an amendment to remove the tax and loosen the phaseout of the tax credits.
The Rules Committee draft, unlike their amendment, does still impose a relatively sharp phaseout of the Senate and wind energy credits, saying that projects that are not already producing electricity by 2028 will not qualify.
An earlier Senate draft was more lenient, saying that companies that start constructing projects by 2028 should get at least partial credit.
—Aris Folley contributed.
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