JACKSON COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) — Although the final version of the legislation is still unclear, it looks like the U.S. Senate’s proposed Big, Beautiful Bill includes a new tax on solar and wind projects and erases several clean energy tax credits.
A weekend change saw Senate leadership move not only get rid of some benefits to clean energy from the Inflation Reduction Act, but to hit solar and wind with an outright excise tax.
The area around Ravenswood is seeing significant solar construction with BHE Renewables developing a106-megawatt solar plant to power most of Timet’s under-construction titanium melt facility.
Doral has a large solar farm in Meigs County, the first thing you see along U.S. 33 when crossing over the Ohio River from Ravenswood.
Some estimates say the additional tax would add $7 billion in costs for clean energy businesses and increase consumer energy prices by 10%.
BHE Renewables declined to comment on the Big, Beautiful Bill but the American Clean Power Association, an umbrella group for renewables, did issue a statement warning the changes would reduce energy investment, cut domestic energy production and drive up costs for electric customers.
West Virginia’s former economic development leader now works for a group of businesses that use a considerable amount of power but want it from clean energy.
“It just seems counter to us that anyone would propose, or have any kind of an idea or proposal that would increase the cost of energy,” said Built For America executive director Mitch Carmichael said.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey seemed OK with pulling solar’s tax breaks.
“I thought that there were a lot of tax changes to the code that came out of the Inflation Reduction Act that were never going to stand the test of time,” Morrisey said. “I think that Congress is right to work towards getting rid of a lot of the Green New Deal.”
The proposed bill also imposes stricter restrictions on using foreign-made components in clean energy projects.