I spoke to Bloomberg‘s Ari Natter about the Senate tax bill’s surprising approach to energy policy:
“From an energy standpoint it’s an epic head fake,” said Liam Donovan, a tax lobbyist at Bracewell LLP. “I don’t think anybody in town would have guessed the Senate mark would be silent on energy, particularly after the waves that were made in the House.”
Read the full piece here.
To be clear, the surprise here was not that the Senate left the production tax credit (PTC) alone–clearly renewables have a stronger constituency within the Senate GOP conference than the house. The shocker was that the Senate failed to restore the orphaned tax credits that were left out of the 2015 phase-down deal. With the House proposal reinstating these credits, the Senate should have been a formality. Instead they chose to forego an energy title altogether.