June 14,2005

Grassley Releases Energy Tax Incentives Bill, Schedules Committee Consideration

M E M O R A N D U M

To: Reporters and Editors
Re: Energy Policy Tax Incentives Act of 2005
Da: Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, today announced that the committee will mark up the Energy Policy Tax Incentives Act of 2005 on Thursday, June 16. The bill is the tax title of the energy policy bill now before the full Senate. He released a description of his chairman’s mark and a score, both from the Joint Committee on Taxation. Grassley made the following comment on his chairman’s mark. A description of the markup and score are posted at finance.senate.gov under “hearings” and “legislation” and also at http://www.house.gov/jct/. The markup notice is here following the Grassley comment.

“A lot of the chairman’s mark focuses on alternative energy and conservation. There aredozens of reasons to develop alternative energy sources and no good reason not to. Sticker shock atthe gas pump, national security concerns, and the depletion of finite resources such as fossil fuelsall build the case for alternative energy sources. The same is true for conservation. We have a successful track record in encouraging alternative energy through tax incentives. For example, the wind energy production tax credit I established for the first time in 1992 has helped to encourage wind energy farms around the country. Tax incentives work, and we need to keep them going. Thechairman’s mark also has some incentives for conventional energy production, but they’re narrowlydefined to increase refinery capacity. On the score of the chairman’s mark, it complies with thebudget resolution. The budget resolution provides $11 billion for energy tax incentives over fiveyears. Historically, the energy tax incentives bill has had a net score of $15 billion to $16 billion over10 years. The chairman’s mark stays within this bipartisan guideline.”

OPEN EXECUTIVE SESSION
Notice
June 14, 2005

The Finance Committee will meet in Open Executive Session on Thursday, June 16, 2005, at 10:30a.m., in 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building, to consider an original bill entitled, “Energy Policy Tax Incentives Act of 2005”.