Time has come for the federal government to deploy taxpayer dollars in energy more effectively to ensure secure, clean, affordable energy here at home and promote technology development for meeting growing energy needs around the world. 

Yesterday, AEE submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee’s Energy Work Group on Tax Reform comments proposing a framework for tax policy that encourages energy innovation on the basis of business-focused principles.

Over the past decades, the tax code has become a complicated patchwork of technology-specific benefits without consistent, core principles for obtaining desired results. Yet today’s federal energy tax credits cost the Treasury $16.6 billion annually. There has to be a better way. 

AEE is proposing a fresh approach that focuses federal tax policy on a core public purpose – promoting innovation to provide our nation with energy that is secure, clean, and affordable. It’s an approach that will pay off in the marketplace. It also represents a sharp departure from the status quo. Of the 26 existing energy tax provisions we have reviewed, not one meets all four of our market-driven principles, and none meet more than two. The framework proposed by AEE shows how these principles can translate into law. 

Check out our letter here to learn more.