NEEC members participating in our Industry Webinar Series learned that the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) will be entering into rulemaking for the revised tax credit program in that state affecting energy efficiency investments by business and the multi-family sectors. The 2011 Oregon Legislature made significant changes to the (now former) Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) which, when signed by the Governor (anticipated soon), will both reduce the amount of tax credit available over the next two years and change the rules for eligibility and application. ODOE’s rulemaking process will be an open public process allowing stakeholders to provide input (which NEEC intends to do). ODOE hopes to have rulemaking complete by October. For those who missed the NEEC Industry Webinar on the BETC, the presentation is available for download on the landing page of the NEEC web site (www.neec.net).
The new Oregon tax credit system leaves a big market hole to fill. After decades with a BETC working to encourage end use customers to invest in energy efficiency in their buildings, inevitably the much reduced size of the tax credit ($28M for the biennium) and the gap in its availability (no applications can be made between April 15th of this year and the development of the new rules) puts a new market hurdle in place. In recognition that some immediate “shock absorber” is needed to mitigate a slowdown in resource acquisition, the Energy Trust of Oregon is contemplating increases in project incentives for projects in areas where the impact is anticipated to be largest. Those are their Existing Building and Production Efficiency program areas. The Trust has analyzed the potential effect of the tax credit changes to their 2011 energy efficiency goals and will be suggesting to their Board of Directors on Aug. 17th a set of incentive increases designed to mitigate those market effects. At an Aug. 10th Conservation Advisory Committee meeting, Trust staff presented their plans and indicated that they believe the mitigation strategy can help ensure that they meet more than 85% of their 2011 stretch goals. The Trust’s temporary incentive bonus for projects not yet completed in 2011 is a 20% increase in prescriptive lighting measures, 50% increase for custom lighting, and a 20% increase for other custom capital projects.
To see the Trust presentation on this issue, visit their web site at www.energytrust.org. Their event calendar has additional information on their August 17th Board of Directors meeting where this mitigation strategy will be decided.