Schatz: We Need a Level Playing Field on Tax Policy for Clean Energy and Fossil Fuels:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) offered an amendment to the Energy Policy Modernization Act that would balance tax preferences for the clean energy and fossil fuel industries. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the Schatz amendment today.

Senator Schatz said, “If we are phasing out tax credits for clean energy – something I oppose– then why are we still committing to permanently support the fossil fuel industries with tax preferences they don’t need? My amendment would address this imbalance and phase down those tax preferences. I hope my colleagues join me in putting our clean sources of energy on a level playing field with their highly polluting counterparts.”

Senator Schatz’s amendment would mirror legislation in the 2016 government funding bill that phases down the wind production tax credit (PTC).  Like the wind PTC, the amendment would reduce the value of tax preferences for fossil fuels each year after December 2016 until it is phased out completely in 2020.

Click here to read the amendment.