Senate Energy Committee approves substitute House Bill 15; supporters praise renewable siting language and urge deletion of refund limit

The Senate Energy Committee adopted a substitute version of House Bill 15 and voted to favorably report the bill to the committee on rules and reference following sponsor remarks and proponent testimony.

Sponsor Senator Reineke introduced substitute bill 0688-10 as a combination of Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 15 with clarifying language. Reineke said the substitute reduces the tangible personal property (TPP) tax on new generation and energy conversion equipment from 25% to 7%, defines "repower" to mean replacement of enough original production equipment so that at least 80% of the true value of the producing equipment derives from the newly installed equipment, and lowers the TPP tax on new transmission, distribution and pipeline infrastructure from 88% to 25%. The substitute, he said, preserves multi-year rate-making plans, maintains an immediate repeal of OVEC and riders, and keeps a solar…