The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) is expected to be enacted as early as March 27, 2020. The CARES Act provisions are intended to provide individuals and companies with liquidity as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic. While the CARES Act contains a few technical fixes, the Senate was focused on providing quick and direct relief to businesses and individuals. As such, and despite requests by the renewable energy industry and a number of Congress members, the CARES Act does not include any provisions to provide relief to the renewable energy industry.
The renewables industry is facing uncertainty as the federal wind production tax credit (PTC) and the solar investment tax credit (ITC) approach their ends. The PTC is expiring in 2021 and the ITC is phasing down from 30% in 2019 to 26% for 2020 and 22% for 2021. The CARES Act does not include extensions for either the PTC or the ITC.
While these provisions were not included in the CARES Act, they could re–emerge in subsequent legislation as Congress intends to continue to work on legislation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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