Committee advances bill offering tax credits and new rate-recovery rules for small modular reactors

The Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee advanced House Bill 1007, a multi-part energy and utility bill, after a lengthy hearing that included lawmakers, environmental advocates and consumer groups. The bill was approved in committee by a recorded vote of 10–3.

Representative Laid-back Saluday, the bill’s lead house sponsor, told the committee the measure addresses several pieces of state energy policy: “This is an important bill. It's a lot of pages, but there are about 5 things that need to be addressed.” He described five principal components: a manufacturer-focused tax credit for small modular reactors (SMRs), a Qualified Infrastructure Plant (QIP) mechanism to recover planning and preconstruction costs, new requirements for notifying affected utilities about large development projects, rules about retiring coal-fired plants, and requirements that very large customers assume most of the financial risk for new generation capacity.

At its core, HB 1007 would create a 20% state tax credit for expenditures incurred to build a manufacturing plant that produces SMRs (the committee record and sponsor repeatedly distinguished the manufacturing-plant credit from utility construction costs). The bill also would expand an existing…