The U.S. House and Senate have passed the Energy Policy Act (HR-6), which contains an expansion of the Section 45 production tax credits for landfill gas (LFG) and waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities. The legislation now moves on to President Bush, who is expected to sign the bill.
The legislation provides the solid waste industry with a two-year extension of the “placed-in-service” window for LFG and WTE facilities that produce electricity. The window is currently set to expire at the end of this year, but the bill would extend it to Dec. 31, 2007. The legislation also extends the payout from five years to 10. The amount of the credit — a baseline rate of .75 cents per kilowatt hour that is then adjusted for inflation — remains the same.