Apparently Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit, which is one of a multitude of tax incentives drawing companies to the state (see a list in this previous post), is proving to be more popular and generous than anticipated. The ease of qualifying for, and receiving, the tax credit has pushed the number of applicants to 4,000, as noted in yesterday’s Oregonian, which ran this story about the companies that are benefiting, calling the credit “the state’s fastest growing tax shelter.” The credit has already attracted a variety of solar and wind companies – think of Vestas, SolarWorld, Iberdrola, Solaicx, Peak Sun (which we talked about here) — and it looks like Sun Edison will be the next one to arrive. That’s the type of business that the state wanted to attract and encourage growth in.
But the benefits aren’t limited to the applicants. An example in the article is Standard Insurance, which purchased at a $1,000,000 discount a credit received by Flakeboard, a mill in Albany. So the state is sanctioning a secondary market, permitting companies to qualify for the credits then turn around and sell them — and for significant discounts — to other companies that presumably don’t qualify. Legislators are now examining in greater details the terms of the tax credit program. We’ll be interested to see what changes are made, if any. As usual, let us know if you hear anything more related to this story.
Tags: green, start-ups, tax credits
[...] may offer cleantech companies. Some Oregon companies (maybe too many? — see this post) already benefit from the Business Energy Tax Credit, among other incentives. Now perhaps similar [...]
[...] “pass-through.” (We’ve written about this extremely popular program in the past, and were admittedly somewhat skeptical of the pass-through [...]