Georgia solar tax credit bill on death bed for 2011

A bill that would have restored Georgia’s clean energy tax credit appears to have died for the year in the state House Ways and Means Committee. The bill’s primary sponsor says there’s an outside change the same provisions could become law by piggybacking as an amendment to another bill.

“It’s possible — although unlikely,” Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, wrote in an e-mail.

An array installed last fall by Hannah Solar on the roof of the Peachtree 25th Building in Atlanta was at the time the largest solar installation on top of an office building in Georgia.

But the annual legislative calendar now makes passage this year of the bill in its current form impossible, and passage in any other form would entail a serious uphill battle. That’s because today is “crossover day” — the last day of the 40-day session when a bill can be approved by only one chamber and still have time to take all the legislative steps to get it through the other chamber.

HB 146 hasn’t made it out of Ways and Means, much less to the House floor. Representatives on the powerful tax-writing committee have been immersed in broader effort to change the tax code in a way that reduces the number of targeted deductions and credits. As Georgia Solar Energy Association lobbyist Jason Rooks warned last month, the larger tax reform “is taking all the oxygen” away from narrower efforts to change the code.

Solar advocates say the tax credit is needed to keep up momentum for Georgia’s small but growing solar energy industry. In addition to a couple of new manufacturing facilities, Georgia is home to a score of solar installers, whose work became more affordable while the the four-year-old credit was in effect.

But a $2.5 million cap on all credits in the state combined — far less than other states with similar credits had set aside — proved too low to meet the needs of the growing industry. In fact, the entire credit appears to be spoken for by already completed projects through 2012, when it currently is set to sunset.

Legislation that fails to pass one chamber by crossover day occasionally is revived as an amendment to another bill. But that’s a tough row to hoe for a tax credit in a year that tax credits have fallen out of favor.

“Our past successes have always come at the last minute or the 11th hour,” GSEA Chairman Doug Beebe said.

While the lack of a credit would make it more difficult for Georgia to compete for its share of the rapidly growing solar industry, established installers have been forced to seek work in other states. The result, according to the CEO of one leading company, will be a lot of trips from Atlanta to other cities.

“Thankfully,” Hannah Solar’s Pete Marte said in an email, “we have a great airport!”