Catagory:Public Policy

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Join CleanCapital for a Webinar: How is the Inflation Reduction Act Affecting Clean Energy Developers?
2
The Tax Credit Revolution: From Brownfields to Brightfields
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Pennsylvania’s Growing Electric Vehicle Charging Network: What’s All the Buzz About NEVI Plans?
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The Tax Credit Revolution
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The Tax Credit Revolution Webinar Series
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California Passes Suite of New Climate Bills Aimed at Reducing Emissions, Stimulating Carbon Capture, and Implementing Buffers
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WELCOME TO THE TAX CREDIT REVOLUTION: NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE ENERGY INDUSTRY IN THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT
8
Ensuring Energy Security Section in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
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Carbon Quarterly – Volume 6
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EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESENTS REPOWEREU PLAN

Join CleanCapital for a Webinar: How is the Inflation Reduction Act Affecting Clean Energy Developers?

In August Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark climate and clean energy bill. Six months later, we’re asking: where are we now?

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The Tax Credit Revolution: From Brownfields to Brightfields

Please Join us as The Tax Credit Revolution Webinar series continues on Thursday, November 3 at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Join us for a discussion on how the Inflation Reduction Act provides developers with new opportunities to redevelop brownfield sites as brightfields, by incorporating solar energy and energy storage technology.

Speakers:

Moderator:

  • Chad Farrell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Encore Renewables

To register, please click the button below to RSVP.

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Pennsylvania’s Growing Electric Vehicle Charging Network: What’s All the Buzz About NEVI Plans?

By: Brianna K. EdwardsThomas R. DeCesarBuck B. EndemannTad J. MacfarlanPierce RichardsonNathan C. Howe

With electric vehicles (EVs) on the rise, recent federal legislative and policy initiatives have prompted states to develop related infrastructure plans. These plans will provide for the greater connectivity required to support the future of EV transportation. As state plans are approved and implemented, new legal issues will likely develop.

On 15 November 2021, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which directs funding to state and local governments for transportation improvement programs, including developing and expanding EV infrastructure. Under the BIL, each state was required to submit a National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure plan to the U.S. Department of Transportation by 1 August 2022.

The Tax Credit Revolution

Please Join us as The Tax Credit Revolution Webinar series continues on Monday, 19 September at 12:00 p.m. ET. This part will be co-hosted by K&L Gates and Marsh

The Tax Credit Revolution: What You Need to Know About How the IRA Will Impact Insurance for Tax Credit Risks

Tax insurance provides renewable energy developers and tax equity investors with a cost-effective risk mitigation tool to protect taxpayers against the loss of renewable energy tax credits in the event of a successful IRS challenge. Join us for a discussion on how tax insurance has become a widely used solution to ensure successful financing in the development of renewable energy projects and how we expect coverage to expand in response to new considerations under the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Speaker: Antony Joyce MarshAlisha Soares Marsh
Moderator: Elizabeth Crouse K&L Gates

To view all previously recorded The Tax Credit Revolution webinars, follow this link

The Tax Credit Revolution Webinar Series

Webinar 3
08 September 2022
3:00 – 4:00 p.m. ET

Thank you to those of you who joined us on Friday for the second webinar in the Tax Credit Revolution series – What You Need to Know about the Wage and Apprenticeship Requirements. We hope you will join us for the third part on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET.  You can register using the link below. 

Webinar 3: The Tax Credit Revolution: What You Need to Know about the Domestic Content Requirements

This webinar will cover credits that will be increased when certain requirements are met. These vary from credit to credit, and will be discussed in greater detail in this program.

Speaker: Stacy Ettinger
Moderator: Elizabeth Crouse

To view recordings of the first two webinars, click on the event page links below. 

Webinar 1: The Tax Credit Revolution: What You Need to Know about Structuring Opportunities, Direct Pay and Transferability
Thursday, 01 September 2022

Webinar 2: The Tax Credit Revolution: What You Need to Know about the Wage and Apprenticeship Requirements
Friday, 02 September 2022

California Passes Suite of New Climate Bills Aimed at Reducing Emissions, Stimulating Carbon Capture, and Implementing Buffers

By: David Wang, Elizabeth C. Crouse, Buck B. Endemann

On August 31, 2022—the last day of the 2022 legislative session—California legislators passed a package of climate bills aimed at reducing statewide emissions, stimulating the carbon capture industry, and implementing buffers between communities and oil and gas developments. The bills include $54 billion in climate-related spending and come on the heels of other state and federal efforts to reduce carbon emissions across many sectors of the economy.

The package contains the following bills:

  • AB 1279, which codifies California’s existing goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.
  • AB 1757, which requires the state Natural Resources Agency to establish targets for natural carbon sequestration and nature-based climate solutions.
  • SB 846, which authorizes the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to continue operations until December 31, 2030, and provides Pacific Gas & Electric Company (“PG&E,” the plant’s operator) with a $1.4 billion loan to help facilitate those operations.  While Diablo Canyon was originally going to be retired by 2025, many saw Diablo Canyon’s 2,256 MW as critical for providing carbon-free power during the afternoon and evening ramp.
  • SB 905, which directs the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) to establish a program to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and viability of carbon capture, utilization, or storage (“CCUS”) and carbon removal technologies. The bill also requires CARB to adopt various regulations governing CCUS and carbon removal projects, including a unified permit application for such projects and measures to minimize leakage from carbon storage reservoirs.
  • SB 1020, which sets interim targets regarding retail sales of electricity. Current law requires 100 percent of all energy sales to California end-use customers to be supplied by eligible renewable energy sources or zero-carbon resources by 2045.  SB 1020 sets interim targets of 90 percent by 2035 and 95 percent by 2040. SB 1020 also requires state agencies to source 100 percent of their energy from eligible renewable or zero-carbon resources by 2035—ten years earlier than the current target.
  • SB 1137, which establishes 3,200-foot buffer zones between oil and gas facilities or wells with a wellhead and facilities that qualify as “sensitive receptors,” including private homes, schools, community centers, nursing homes, hospitals, and prisons.

Legislators failed to pass AB 2133, which would have made stricter California’s emissions reduction goals (raising from 40 percent to 55 percent the reduction below the state’s 1990 emissions levels that California would have to meet by 2030).

Each bill now goes to Governor Gavin Newsom to sign by September 30, 2022, which he is expected to do after publicly advocating for them earlier in August. The California legislature’s actions come several days after CARB announced a new rule that would require by 2035 all new cars, trucks, and SUVs sold in the state to be greenhouse gas emission-free. These state-level efforts complement recent federal efforts to catalyze and develop a low-emissions energy economy, notably the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (“IIJA,” or Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which included $47.2 billion for improving climate resilience) and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (“IRA,” which included $369 billion in climate-related spending, tax credits, and incentives). These initiatives represent a concerted effort on both the federal and state level to rapidly shift the economy towards low-emissions energy sources, and consequently provide ample opportunities for new investment opportunities, financing structures, and stakeholders.

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WELCOME TO THE TAX CREDIT REVOLUTION: NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE ENERGY INDUSTRY IN THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT

By: Elizabeth C. CrouseElias B. HinckleyMary Burke BakerLaurie B. Purpuro

On 16 August 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). While not as expansive as the Build Back Better Act, the IRA has the potential to dramatically accelerate the energy transition in the United States. Features of the IRA include extensions and tweaks of several popular credits for renewable electricity, alternative fuel vehicles, and carbon capture, as well as numerous new renewable energy and fuels credits and a fundamental pivot after 2024 to renewable electricity credits based on greenhouse gas emissions of generation technology. In addition, new credits for manufacturing and recycling related to the renewable energy sector may help drive increased investment in American manufacturing. Further, the new direct pay and transferability techniques create opportunities for new financing structures and stakeholders. 

To help our clients understand and benefit from these new tax credits, we have prepared a high-level summary for several key technologies, primarily in a commercial context.

Ensuring Energy Security Section in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022

By Laurie B. Purpuro

On 27 July, Senators Manchin and Schumer announced a deal on the successor to the Build Back Better Act, which is expected to pass in the Senate on Saturday (6 August 2022) and the House the following Friday. This new legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, includes US$370 billion in programs and tax credits to boost renewable energy production in the United States. 

That said, page 644 of the draft includes language that ties federal solar, wind and offshore wind development to federal lease sales for oil and gas. 

The Details

The section of the bill titled “Ensuring Energy Security” prohibits the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from issuing rights-of-way (ROW) for wind or solar development on federal land unless an onshore oil and gas lease sale has occurred within 120 days before the wind or solar lease issuance. In addition, these wind and solar ROWs would not be allowed unless, in the previous year, BLM completed onshore oil and gas lease sales covering 2,000,000 acres or 50% of the acreage in which interested parties have expressed interest, whichever is lower. (Note: Wind and solar projects that impact federal land are authorized by ROWs.)

Offshore wind (OSW) is similarly impacted by this provision, as it prohibits the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) from issuing an OSW lease unless an oil and gas offshore lease sale of at least 60 million acres is held during the year before the OSW lease issuance.

The Impact

This section of the agreement is intended to force the Biden Administration to restart the regularly scheduled oil and gas lease sales that it has been cancelling since 2021, while at the same time allowing the Biden Administration to conduct fewer annual oil and gas lease sales than currently required.   

The Mineral Leasing Act requires four onshore oil and gas leases per year; the language in this bill requires three onshore oil and gas leases per year, as a prerequisite to solar and wind development on federal land. BOEM offshore oil and gas five-year leasing programs require two offshore oil and gas lease sales in most years; this bill requires one sale per year, in order to allow solar and wind development on federal land. 

Furthermore, the acreage requirements for oil and gas sales outlined in the bill are in line with previous sales. And for the onshore oil and gas lease sales, just in case BLM falls shore of the 2,000,000 acre requirement, they can sell leases for 50% of the acreage that parties are interested in.

The Compromise

This Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a compromise forged by Senate Democrats with the slimmest of majorities. The Ensuring Energy Security section is Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Joe Manchin’s way of requiring an all of the above energy policy for the country.

Carbon Quarterly – Volume 6

By: Ankur K. TohanMolly K. BarkerTad J. MacfarlanSamuel R. BodenDavid J. RaphaelMatthew P. ClarkAlyssa A. MoirMelissa M. MalstromLaurie B. PurpuroBrianna K. Marshall

No matter your views on climate change policy, there is no avoiding an increasing focus on carbon regulation, resiliency planning, and energy efficiency at nearly every level of government and business. Changes in carbon—and more broadly greenhouse gas—policies have the potential to broadly impact our lives and livelihoods. The Carbon Quarterly offers a rundown of the latest developments.

IN THIS ISSUE:  

Carbon Policy

  • The 2023 Farm Bill and the Growing Climate Solutions Act

Carbon Litigation and Regulation

  • Supreme Court Advances Major Questions Doctrine and Limits EPA’s Authority to Regulate Power Plant Carbon Emissions
  • The Courts Again Allow Agencies to Weigh Carbon
  • USDA to Invest US$1 Billion in Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry

Carbon Business

  • Continuing Carbon Offset Opportunities in Agriculture and Forestry

Carbon Spotlight

  • Weyerhaeuser’s Climate Change Solutions

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESENTS REPOWEREU PLAN

Policy and Regulatory and Energy, Infrastructure, and Resources Alert

By: Tariq A. FeddaMiguel A. Caramello AlvarezGiovanni CampiInês S. Mendes, Paula Esteban Gomez

The European Commission (the Commission) presented on 18 May 2022 details of its plan to repower Europe and to reduce, and ultimately end, Europe’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels (the REPowerEU Plan or the Plan)1 that was announced on 8 March 2022. 

It aims to do this with three pillars: energy conservation; diversifying supplies; and quickly substituting fossil fuels by accelerating Europe’s clean energy transition, all while smartly combining investments and reforms.

The Plan acknowledges that the shift away from Russian fossil fuels will also require targeted investments for security of supply in gas infrastructure and very limited changes to current oil infrastructure, alongside large-scale investments in the electricity grid and an EU-wide hydrogen backbone. As such, the different elements of the Plan, which comprise a series of proposals, communications and guidance documents, will be of interest to anyone participating in the energy markets in Europe, including developers of renewable and conventional energy projects, buyers and sellers of commodities, and even households. 

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