U.S. SLAPS SOLAR, WIND FARMS WITH RETROACTIVE RENT BILLS

The White House has ended two years of rent-free operations of solar and wind farms in federal land, slapping these renewable energy facilities with huge retroactive bills that the government says would net the administration $50 million this year.

In a report early on May 19, 2020, Reuters disclosed that this move by the White House has come at a time when installation projects have been cancelled or delayed by the global health crisis, which has led to cut in investments and dimmed the demand outlook for power, and further aggravated by government now vowing to cut back on tax breaks for companies enjoying them.

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, while two other renewable projects also confirmed they had received retroactive rent bills from the federal government.

A total of 96 utility-scale solar, wind and geothermal projects operate on lands run by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, according to The Wilderness Society and Yale Center for Business and the Environment.