South Carolina Senate plan would stop solar tax credits for homeowners

[Redfairen]

South Carolina’s skepticism about solar power emerged again Tuesday, when lawmakers agreed to phase out solar tax credits for homeowners at the same time utility regulators were offering little support for a large solar farm in the Upstate.

The Senate Finance Committee voted to drop the residential tax credit after 2017 as part of a bill intended to help businesses that want to use sun panels to save money. Under current South Carolina law, homeowners can claim a 25 percent tax credit off the cost of installing solar panels.

Senators said little about why they wanted to phase out the tax credit for homeowners, but Sen. William O’Dell, R-Abbeville, said a similar federal tax credit is to expire in the next three years.

Republican Sen. Wes Hayes, of York, and Columbia-area Democrats Nikki Setzler, Darrell Jackson and Joel Lourie questioned why South Carolina can’t have its own solar tax credit for homeowners, regardless of what the federal government does.

http://www.thestate.com/2014/02/04/3245364/sc-senate-plan-would-stop-solar.html

[kristopher]

1. "why South Carolina can’t have its own solar tax credit for homeowners"???

Because it would reduce the amount of power that nuclear and coal can sell on the high value mid-day spot market. The income from the sale of that power is what keeps most of the large-scale generating operators in business. Without it, they shut down; and we couldn't have that, could we?