March 31, 2008—Washington has approved a climate change bill designed to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, and Oregon and South Dakota are the latest states to encourage renewable energy development through tax incentives, according to a report from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire approved a climate change bill designed to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to half of its 1990 emission levels by 2050. The bill also includes interim limits of returning to 1990 emission levels by 2020 and reducing emissions to 25% below 1990 levels by 2035, explains EERE.
House Bill 2815,leaves most of the details to Washington’s Department of Ecology, which has until December 1 to create a greenhouse gas reduction plan that achieves the bill’s emissions targets, notes EERE. The department also has to develop a system for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions.
The bill also acknowledges Washington’s current commitment to the Western Climate Initiative, which has set a regional goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 15% below 2005 levels by 2020. The state plans to participate in the initiative’s regional market-based mechanism to reduce emissions, possibly a cap-and-trade system, which the initiative plans to create by August.
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski approved a bill that allows tax credits of up to $40 million for manufacturers of renewable energy equipment. HB 3619 (.pdf file) is aimed at drawing new, economically beneficial facilities to the state, says EERE.
The new South Dakota act provides tax incentives for wind energy facilities and the transmission lines that serve them. House Bill 1320, approved recently by Governor Mike Rounds, waives all state and local property taxes for wind energy facilities with a capacity of at least five megawatts. Instead, the owners of the facilities have to pay a tax of $3 per kilowatt of capacity plus 2% of the gross receipts of the wind facility. The wind facility developers can also earn rebates for up to half the cost of underground distribution lines, substations, and transmission lines built to support the wind power facility.
