“The relevant rules are highly technical, and this often means that investors, users, and developers – as well as less-specialized professionals – typically depend on the structuring advice of experts who often assume the ‘typical’ business deal and then provide general guidance …. [Tax-break recipients] may … fail to attend to important aspects, leaving money on the table or putting their ventures at the risk of IRS attacks.”
– EUCI, “In-Depth Tax Planning for Renewable Energy Projects,” June 9–10 Conference Description.
The energy industry conference group EUCI is hosting a two-day event next month in San Diego, “In-Depth Tax Planning for Renewable Energy Projects.” The complex topic with specially designed software and technical experts is advertised as follows:
… Continue ReadingMaximizing the benefits of tax incentives is vital in any renewable energy transaction, and whether a project “pencils out” generally turns on the efficient use of these incentives.
A few years back a YouTube video of the comedian Louis CK went viral on the internet. Speaking on the Conan O’Brien show, CK called on people to reawaken their sense of wonder at the unprecedented technological marvels of the modern world:
We live in an amazing amazing world… Everybody on every plane should constantly be going “oh my God! Wow!” You’re sitting in a chair in the sky. People say there’s delays on flights. Delays, really? New York to California in five hours. It used to take 30 years.
Robert Bryce’s Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong, published this month by Public Affairs, does not feature Louis CK’s comic rant, which is too bad, as the book is in many ways an extended reflection on the same theme.…
Continue ReadingThe safety and importance of hydraulic fracturing are not just industry talking points. They are conclusions embraced by virtually everyone, outside of a narrow subset of political activists who refuse to let science and facts get in the way of their extreme agenda.
Background
For many years, environmental activists have pushed for bans, moratoria, or other restrictions on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), alleging the process is a threat to public health and the environment. But in recent months, increasing numbers of environmentalists have distanced themselves from the “ban fracking” agenda.
Many have even embraced shale gas on environmental grounds, revealing how extreme and marginalized the campaign to restrict hydraulic fracturing has become.
“Environmentalists who oppose the development of shale gas and fracking are making a tragic mistake,” wrote Richard Muller last year.…
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