Information below comes from the Environmental Law and Policy Center’s CREB Site:
On Monday, December 12, the IRS released Notice 2005-98, which solicits applications for allocations of the Clean Renewable Energy Bond (CREB) limitations under section 54(f) of the Internal Revenue Code. This notice provides guidance on the requirements a project must meet in order to be eligible to obtain an allocation of the limitation, the methodology the Treasury Department will use to allocate the limitation, and the credit rate, maximum term and information reporting requirements applicable to CREBs. Applications for the allocation of the CREB limitation must be filed by April 26, 2006.
According to the guidelines, the Treasury Department will allocate bonding authority to the smallest qualified projects first until funding authority is used up. For example, a $5 million bond request would be granted before a $50 million request. There are no state-by-state allocations. However, only $500 million of the $800 million can be allocated to governmental units, with the remainder reserved for rural electric cooperatives.
Notice 2005-98 can be found on the IRS web site: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-05-98.pdf
See the previous story in Democratic Energy for more background on the CREB program.
ELPC hosted a national teleconference on the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) program that was included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Here is a podcast of an abridged recording of the call (30 minutes).
The CREB program regulations are scheduled to be issued in January 2006. For more information on these new renewable energy bonds, contact Charles Kubert, ELPC Environmental Business Specialist, at (312) 795-3716 or at ckubert@elpc.org.. ELPC is also planning a second CREB teleconference briefing in early February after the new regulations areissued.
