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With a hope to reduce carbon emission faster as well as to increase deployment of renewable energy, President Obama proposes to extend the nation’s investment tax credit (ITC) for solar projects in his fiscal year 2016 budget. The production tax credit (PTC) for wind power would also be continued if both are approved.
Reuters reported that President Obama proposed boosting funding for clean energy and a new fund to encourage U.S. states to cut emissions from solar power faster and deeper. When proposed the plan, Obama called for a permanent extension of both ITC and PTC for the national budget as well. This is translated as a move from his ambition to fight against climate change.
The announcement involves a 7% increase of the budget, from fiscal 2015’s USD$ 6.9 billion to fiscal 2016’s proposed USD$7.4 billion. Obama’s propose also includes a new USD$4 billion fund to accelerate the carbon emission plans. The $4 billion fund would be available to any state that applies, said Janet McCabe, acting assistant Environmental Protection Agency Administrator in charge of air regulations, and cited Reuters. States could receive money for financing clean energy technologies, creating incentives for business to reduce emission, and funding for low-income communities which are suffering from the environmental pollution.
The US ITC is scheduled to drop from current 30% to 10% at the end of 2016. However, the new budget plan is likely to be turned down by Republicans, who now control the Senate and the House of Representatives, wrote PV Tech. The cut if ITC could lead to absence of utility-scale solar power plants in 2017.
(Photo Credit: White House)