Publishing, Distribution and Publishing: “The renewable energy sector is active but concerned about financing the inflation reduction law

Diving Brief:

• Tom Stars, vice president of government and public affairs for EDP Renewables, told attendees at the RE+ conference in Anaheim that the inflation-reduction law is “bigger, bolder, and ultimately more transformative” for the US energy sector than any other legislation ever enacted. . California last week.

• While the clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act have been in the works for many years, creating the law “was not a straightforward path, nor was it inevitable,” said Alexander McDonough, partner at policy consultancy group Pioneer Public Affairs.

• McDonough encouraged conference attendees to promote funding from the law when announcing new projects in the coming years as a way to win over Americans who remain skeptical of the legislation.

Diving Insight:

Last week’s RE+ conference had a festive mood, with many conference participants anticipating an influx of capital as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act. But while participants in a panel covering the law’s history were similarly elated, they cautioned that recipients of funding still had to demonstrate the bill’s economic success.

McDonough said the landmark legislation, which emerged in an uncertain and even hostile political climate in 2018, was passed along partisan lines, and remains a polarizing act ahead of a series of crucial elections.

“More importantly, this could be a race against time depending on the outcome of future elections,” Stars agreed. “We need to figure out how to publish, distribute and publish in the next couple of years, because people are looking for tangible evidence that this law has made a real difference in their lives.”

Erin Duncan, vice chair of congressional affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association, also drew attention to the 2020 elections in Georgia, which saw two Democrats elected to the Senate by slim margins and split the Senate by 50-50, with a Democratic vice president to tie breakers. That cleared the way for tax credit extensions that had been weak for two years to gain momentum, Duncan said.

Passing the bill also requires building a huge coalition of stakeholders who have brought their own interests to the table and led to the inclusion of provisions such as local content requirements to qualify for tax credits, labor standards and new incentives for emerging technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen, Starrs said. Although not exactly what early proponents of clean energy legislation had in mind — the original goal was for renewable energy advocates to extend existing tax credits for wind and solar — Stars said he believes these additions will ultimately make the renewable energy industry better. of what they found.

“The rest of the entire energy sector — coal, natural gas pipelines, it’s all very much linked to unions,” Stars said. The solar energy industry and clean energy in general is the last company to reject [without prominent unions]in the energy sector. And we made it because we were young, new, expensive, and a lot of people wanted to support us. But these arguments only developed as long as we continued to be young and cool and expensive, and as the industry matured, in my view, we needed to start living up to the mark. [with labor protections]. “

McDonough said the work is not finished. The next step, he said, is to implement the law in such a way that Americans – especially those who did not support the law – believe the legislation is worthwhile. He said that would mean spreading the word as projects that have received IRA funds are announced and work begins.

“This is not just lobbyists and campaign contributions,” McDonough said. “It’s about telling the world about [the IRA’s] Success — making sure that if a company is building a project that people know about, that it gets published in the local news, it’s important that people understand these programs.”

Source link

from San Jose News Bulletin https://sjnewsbulletin.com/publishing-distribution-and-publishing-the-renewable-energy-sector-is-active-but-concerned-about-financing-the-inflation-reduction-law/