Rep. Thompson, Estes and Sens. Coons, Moran Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Expand Renewable Energy Tax Advantages

Washington – Today Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, and Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS), along with Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) announced the introduction of the Financing Our Future Energy Act. This bipartisan and bicameral bill gives renewable energy projects access to master limited partnerships (MLP), a tax advantage currently only available to oil, gas, and coal projects.

"Harnessing the potential of renewable energy sources is a key part of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Master limited partnerships are tax structures that allow energy projects to get access to capital at a lower cost, making them more competitive to private investment. But these structures are currently only available to the oil, gas and coal industries," said Thompson. "That's why I've joined colleagues from both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate to introduce the Financing Our Future Energy Act, a bill to expand MLP access to renewable energy projects in order to attract new investment. This will help create more jobs in the renewable energy sector, allowing us to better tackle the threat of climate change."

"The Financing Our Energy Future Act updates our tax code to allow renewable energy projects to have equal access to capital," said Representative Estes. "As a supporter of an all-of-the-above energy strategy for our country, I'm proud to sponsor this bill that will extend vital resources to renewable energy initiatives, creating jobs and contributing to our nation's dominance in energy production and innovation. I look forward to helping secure passage of this bill in Congress."

A master limited partnership is a business structure that is taxed as a partnership, but whose ownership interests are traded like corporate stock on a market. By statute, MLPs have only been available to investors in energy portfolios for oil, natural gas, coal extraction and pipeline projects. This bill levels the playing field to make renewable energy sources more competitive for private capital investments.

"Clean energy technologies have made tremendous progress in the last several decades, and they deserve the same shot at success in the market as traditional energy projects have experienced through the federal tax code," said Senator Coons. "By updating the code, the bipartisan Financing Our Energy Future Act levels the playing field for a broad range of domestic energy sources -- clean and traditional alike -- to support the all-of-the-above energy strategy we need to power our country for generations to come. This practical, market-driven solution will unleash private capital and create jobs, and that's why it has earned broad support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress as well as think tanks, business leaders, and investors. Updating the tax code in this way will help increase parity and ensure that these energy technologies can permanently benefit from the incentives that traditional energy sources have depended on to build infrastructure for more than 30 years."

"The United States has the largest and most efficient capital markets in the world, yet our renewable energy companies rarely have access to those markets," said Senator Moran. "In order to grow our economy and increase our energy security, sound economic tools like master limited partnerships should be expanded to include additional domestic energy sources. The MLP Parity Act will allow the renewable energy sector to utilize the MLP structure for project development making it accessible to a broader and deeper investment pool that can drastically reduce the time and cost associated with deploying new energy technologies."

You can click here to learn more about the Financing Our Energy Future Act.

Congressman Mike Thompson is proud to represent California's 5^th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties. He is a senior member of the House Committee on Ways and Means where he chairs the Subcommittee on Tax Policy. Rep. Thompson is Chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. He is also Co-Chair of the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus and a member of the fiscally-conservative Blue Dog Coalition.