By Phil Riske, managing editor | Rose Law Group Reporter
STATE CAPITOL — Its sponsor saying renewable energy is the best source of economic development in Arizona, a bill providing tax incentives for renewable energy facilities was unanimously adopted Wednesday by the Senate Commerce, Energy & Military Committee on a 5-0 vote.
SB 1484 establishes an individual and corporate income tax credit for investments of at least $300 million in a three-year period in new renewable energy facilities that produce energy for self-consumption using renewable energy resources if the power would be used primarily for manufacturing.
“These industries are most potent” in driving state’s economy,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bob Worsley, R-Mesa. “This is a way to attract a different breed of clientele.”
The credit is $1 million per year for five years for each renewable energy facility, and the maximum credit allowed per taxpayer per year is $5 million.
Committee Chairman Sen. Al Melvin, R-Saddlebrook is again trying to have nuclear energy classified as a renewable source, and the committee adopted 3-2 his bill (SB1402) to do that, with Democrats Leah Landrum Taylor and Robert Meza voting no.
The bill designates as renewable any “nuclear energy fueled by recycled uranium fuel rods that include 80 percent or more recycled nuclear fuel or natural thorium reactor resources under development.”
Melvin, who is running for governor, has long been a proponent to designate Arizona as a nuclear waste depository.
