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.