By Michael Bergey, DWEA President
The DWEA Board met in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12 for a day of strategic planning, following the national elections which occurred the week before. We were hosted by the law firm Nixon Peabody, which was arranged by Board Member Jim Duffy. Thank you, Jim.
With the re-election of Donald Trump, the flip of the Senate to a Republican majority and retention of Republican control in the House, there are justifiable concerns about the security of the IRA programs that are underpinning business growth in our industry. DWEA Policy Director Lloyd Ritter took the Board through a review of the election results and his thoughts on the vulnerabilities of various programs, such as the Sec 48 investment tax credits, ITC bonuses, transferability, direct pay, the Sec 45X domestic manufacturing credits, and the USDA REAP program. After considerable discussion, the consensus was that the IRA will not likely be repealed in its entirety, but some of the lesser provisions of it might be scaled back or even repealed. There is significant concern about the USDA REAP program, though its benefits to farmers should give it enough protection through to the IRA funding sunset in 2027. We also had a valuable review and discussion of the US DOE distributed wind programs, led by Bret Barker who helps manage the DW programs.
The next day the Board went to Capitol Hill for meetings with key House and Senate Congressional offices and committee staff. DWEA’s top priority is to establish a reserve fund for the USDA REAP program in the Farm Bill. The DW industry has greatly benefited from the IRA’s “Underutilized Technologies” reserve fund, and we need to institutionalize this by arranging it to be included in the Farm Bill. We discovered that we have work to do to make this happen and those efforts are now underway. We also lobbied for the larger House appropriation for the DOE distributed wind program.
The next four years will be challenging for the industry, but I am optimistic that we will be able to convince the new leadership in Washington that distributed wind is important to America’s agricultural sector and can help build the economy. DWEA has never been more important.