Political Quotes

“I thank my friend, Mr. Neal, for yielding and for his support of this bill. It is very important to the States of South Carolina and Georgia. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1551 will make two critical modifications to the nuclear production tax credit program. This bill will allow government- owned electric utilities and nonprofit electric cooperatives to utilize the credit, which current law restricts to for-profit utilities only. It will also remove the placed-in-service deadline for facilities to be completed. Since the tax credit's original passage in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, four new advanced nuclear plants, the V.C. Summer site in South Carolina, and the Vogtle site in Georgia, have been licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and are under construction. Both projects are partly owned by State or municipal-owned utilities or nonprofit electric cooperatives. These public power entities, which have taken the first steps in constructing new advanced nuclear facilities, should not be penalized, but should, instead, be treated similarly to the for-profit utilities for the purpose of these tax incentives. The construction that is currently underway in South Carolina and Georgia employ over 12,000 skilled workers and represent billions of dollars of investment. When complete, they will be the largest addition of carbon-free energy in either State and will replace older fossil fuel-emitting plants.…”