The Treasury Department released on its web site in June additional guidance in the form of 25 frequently asked questions and answers on the Section 1603 grant program's "beginning of construction" requirement. A project must either be placed in service in 2009 or 2010 to qualify for the grant, or if construction begins on or before December 31, 2010 it must be placed in service by the credit's specified termination date. The new guidance is also intended to clarify issues investors have raised regarding "physical work of a significant nature" and the 5 percent safe harbor. Download the entire list of FAQs and answers at www.energytaxcredits.com. For analysis, please read The Current on page 68.

The DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of Delaware (UD) announced they will facilitate the potential establishment of a commercial wind turbine test site off the Delaware coast. This would allow researchers to study complete turbine systems at sites that will expose the turbines to typical offshore conditions before installing multiple full-scale commercial turbines. As part of the planning and development of a potential test site, NREL and UD will develop test procedures specific to the area's harsh offshore wind environment and establish methods for predicting wind energy costs. Should the offshore test site become a reality, NREL and UD say their studies will generate the information needed to improve the performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness of offshore wind power.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland signed Senate Bill 232 in June, eliminating the tangible personal property tax and real taxes on generation for advanced energy project facilities. The taxes are eliminated for projects that begin construction before January 1, 2012 and produce energy by 2013. Nuclear, clean coal and cogeneration projects have until 2017 to produce energy. The bill allows companies seeking to build advanced energy generation facilities in Ohio to make an annual payment in lieu of taxes, bringing Ohio's tax rates for these kinds of projects in line with surrounding states. View a copy of S.B. 232 at www.energytaxcredits.com.

The DOE announced in June that it had offered U.S. Geothermal Inc. a $102.2 million conditional commitment for a loan guarantee to construct a 22 megawatt geothermal power project in southeastern Oregon. U.S. Geothermal estimates that the project will create 150 jobs during the 20-month construction period and employ 10 skilled full-time workers when it begins operating in 2012. The project will use supercritical binary geothermal cycle technology, allowing lower-temperature geothermal resources to be used for power generation. Idaho Power Company will purchase 100 percent of the project's output under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA). This is one of 10 clean energy projects for which DOE has issued conditional commitments for loan guarantees. More information is available at www.lgprogram.energy.gov.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., released the draft legislative text of the Domestic Manufacturing and Energy Jobs Act of 2010 on July 26. The bill would expand the Section 48C advanced manufacturing tax credit to provide an investment tax credit for expenditures to re-equip, expand or modify facilities that manufacture and fabricate solar energy property, fuel cell power plants, and advanced energy storage systems and increase the allocation cap for other facilities by $3 billion. It would also extend the Section 1603 direct payment in lieu of production tax credit and investment tax credit program through 2012; create a program to award $2 billion of investment tax credits to support taxpayer efforts to improve domestic energy efficiency and identify new sources of renewable energy; and expand and extend several renewable energy bond programs.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the governors of 10 eastern states formally established an Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium to promote the development of wind resources on the Outer Continental Shelf. The Department of the Interior and the governors of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate federal-state cooperation for commercial wind development and to establish an action plan for achieving the objectives outlined in the agreement. The Interior's new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will oversee the development of wind and other renewable energy resources. Task forces have been established in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland, and are in process for New York, South Carolina and Florida.