Trump administration slaps solar, wind operators with massive retroactive rent bills GlobeBusiness
Julie Jacobson/The Associated Press
It also clashes with broader government efforts in the United States to shield companies from the worst of the economic turmoil through federal loans, waived fees, tax breaks and trimmed regulatory enforcement.U.S. power plant owner Avangrid Inc, majority owned by Spain’s Iberdrola, received a bill for more than $3 million for two years of rent on its 131-megawatt Tule wind project on federal land near San Diego, according to spokesman Paul Copleman.
The bills came as a surprise, said Shannon Eddy, executive director of the Large-scale Solar Association, a trade group for owners of big solar farms. But she said some companies had likely set funds aside in case the bills ever came. A budget document on the Interior Department’s website shows it expects to collect $50 million in rent fees for wind and solar projects in 2020, up from $1.1 million in 2019 and $21.6 million in 2018.The rent bills landed around the same time the Bureau of Land Management notified oil and gas drillers on federal lands of the procedures they would need to follow to get relief from paying royalties amid an oil market slump.
Renewable companies are also facing significant headwinds from the coronavirus. Project delays have threatened their ability to tap lucrative federal subsidies needed to compete with fossil fuels and cut the growth outlook for U.S. wind and solar installations by 5% and 10%, respectively, this year, according to the Energy Information Administration.
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