by Mark Walter
The Build Back Better budget reconciliation bill that Congress is now debating is the best opportunity in a generation to pass climate policy that will reverse the rising greenhouse gas emissions threatening our economy, health and livelihoods.
To investors and companies, its incentives for developing clean, renewable energy are a fantastic opportunity to invest in projects that produce solid financial returns and create jobs — millions of family-supporting jobs primarily in rural America that can’t be exported. Each renewable energy development project creates hundreds of jobs during construction. Typically, solar energy projects the size of 100 MW or more will require between 100 to 300 workers.
And these projects and other climate measures in the bill will bring down emissions.
That’s powerful. Yet, we see one other opportunity that development of renewable energy projects could solve: Putting to use abandoned brownfields from shuttered factories and mines and land that can’t be farmed.
The U.S. landscape is dotted with these brownfields. Land sitting idle under shuttered steel mills, chemical factories, coal mines and depleted farms can be found in every corner of the country, from the once industrial Northeast to drought-plagued stretches of the Southwest, from dormant coal mines in Appalachia to long-shut gold mines in the Cascades. And often these idle factories and mines are in hard-working communities that have struggled to attract new investment for decades.
Let’s match supply with demand. Renewable energy project developers are looking for land where they can build projects. Right now, as part of the reconciliation process, Congress is talking over the idea of adding an extra small boost in its tax incentives to develop land on already remediated brownfields.
Already some developers are building solar and wind energy projects on brownfields to restore them to revenue-producing use. My firm Savion, LLC, a Green Investment Group portfolio company, part of Macquarie Group, is developing projects on land formerly used by a munitions plant, on an over-fertilized and no longer productive agricultural field and on former mine quarries. Our projects in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia have brought jobs to communities that have seen too many companies leave, and we’d like to recreate that success in states like Kentucky, West Virginia and Michigan.
Incentives could spur even more brownfield development. The cost to re-engineer these lands and acquire the extra permitting to build on them makes these projects more expensive than developing energy on open, unencumbered land and therefore less competitive. And by finding new uses for brownfields, other open and more fertile land could still be used for things like agriculture or residential development. Why not encourage the use of lands that can no longer be lived on or farmed? We hope a contemplated tax credit boost for developing renewable projects on brownfields gets included in the reconciliation bill.
Tax credits are a proven method for encouraging development of critical technologies the country needs. Between its incentives for clean power, transportation electrification and other climate measures, the Build Back Better budget reconciliation package is expected to reduce emissions by 45% over the decade, helping the U.S. meet its goals and helping prevent worsening climate change.
It is so important to enact strong climate policies as soon as possible. Scientists say we can no longer delay and must act now to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Otherwise, we face a ticking time bomb in climate change and, with it, irreversible climate disasters.
The budget and its combination of tax credits for important technologies in electricity, transportation manufacturing and infrastructure development, closing of tax loopholes and slightly raising taxes on corporate income can bring us to where we need to be in this critical decade of the 21st century.
That’s why we support the Build Back Better budget reconciliation bill with its Clean Energy Performance Program intact and a 10% tax credit boost for developing renewable energy on brownfields.
Let’s create good jobs for our communities and build a safer future.
Mark Walter is director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at Savion, a Green Investment Group portfolio company that’s part of Macquarie Group.
