Sen. Coleman finds more pork for Excelsior
December 9th, 2006
In their styes with all their backing
They don’t care what goes on around
In their eyes there’s something lacking
What they need’s a damn good whacking…
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So there’s this Health Care bill, and they stuck a number of energy related provisions in at the last minute and they were squealing like stuck pigs, but lo and behold, it all passed… just under the wire… funny how that works!
Questions – Inquiring minds want to know:
Is Excelsior one of the DOE tax credit recipients this round?
Is Excelsior one of the two recipients not disclosed?
If Excelsior didn’t get it this round, will Excelsior be applying next round?
BONUS QUESTION: If Excelsior gets this DOE tax credit, is it passed on in the PPA to the ratepayers or does Micheletti put it in his pocket?
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Excelsior Energy project would benefit under coal gasification tax incentives
Mesabi Daily News
Friday, December 08th, 2006 11:09:24 PMWASHINGTON â?? The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was geared toward helping the country become more energy independent, which means more of a focus on clean-coal projects â?? including the Excelsior Energy Project slated for the Iron Range.
But the act had a technicality that was not kind to that initiative and others like it. U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., hopes a provision he is proposing to remedy the situation will be approved in another bill soon to be voted on by the full Senate.
Coleman cited a need to create a level playing field for the advancement of coal gasification technology, in successfully getting a provision included in the Tax Relief and Health Care Act, which will soon be considered on the Senate floor, that will allow the Excelsior Energy project to qualify for federal clean coal tax incentives.
Specifically, Colemanâ??s provision changes emission requirements contained in last yearâ??s Energy Bill that discriminated against projects like Excelsior that use cleaner, subbituminous coal â?? blocking their eligibility for new tax incentives.
â??My concern is that this would seriously hamper or undermine the Excelsior Energy Project, which is why Iâ??ve worked for over nine months to find a solution,â? said Coleman. â??Due to a technicality in last yearâ??s Energy Bill, Excelsior is unable to utilize clean coal tax credits. Ironically, Excelsior Energy was penalized for doing exactly what we want them to do: Create cleaner energy.
â??Excelsior offers us an opportunity for Minnesota to increase domestic energy production, lower the demand for and cost of natural gas, and do so in an environmentally sensitive manner. I am very thankful for the hard work of Congressmen (Jim) Ramstad and (Jim) Oberstar (both of Minnesota) in supporting my legislation and pressing for its passage on their side of Capitol Hill.â?
The Excelsior Energy project is expected to create hundreds of local construction jobs during the three years it takes to build the plant and many permanent high-tech jobs when commercial operations commence.
Recently, Sen. Coleman was successful in helping the projectâ??s developers in securing a $36 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to be used in the design and construction of the advanced clean coal plant, which will be located on the Iron Range in Northeastern Minnesota.
Excelsior officials plan for three coal gasification plants on the Range, with the first one slated for Itasca County near Bovey.
Talk about great minds! As I was prepping this to post (got carried away with all the piggie photos), what should arrive but a link to Sen. Coleman’s site! THANK YOU!!! Perfect timing. But before you read it, put on your barn boots, it’s getting deep in here!
Here’s the IRS Notice on the tax credits:
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-06-24.pdf
Here’s the public version of Excelsior’s response to Xcel IR 2 and 4 that addressed the credit — and the response to IR4 included a copy of the IRS Notice above:
Excelsior Response to Xcel IR 2
Excelsior Response to Xcel IR 4 – DOE 48A
Prior Legalectric posts on the PRB tax credit:
More about the tax credit and PRB
Impact of no tax credit for PRB
Oh, PRB… PRB is “Powder River Basin” coal, from… ta da… the Power River Basin in Wyoming, it’s a low sulphur coal.
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