Wind taxes

Wind taxes

February 15, 2017 | By Keith Martin in Washington, DC

Oklahoma is considering imposing a tax on electricity generated from wind.

The governor, Mary Fallin (R), proposed such a tax of 0.5¢ per KWh in the fiscal year 2018 budget she sent the state legislature. Fiscal 2018 starts on July 1, 2017.

Oklahoma would be the third US state to impose such a tax. Wyoming taxes wind electricity at 0.1¢ a KWh. South Dakota imposes taxes of 0.065¢ a KWh on wind farms that commenced operating between July 1, 2007 and March 31, 2015 and 0.045¢ a KWh for wind farms that went into operation more recently.

The Oklahoma legislature is also debating whether to end a tax credit of 0.5¢ a KWh for generating electricity from wind before its scheduled expiration date. The tax credit may be claimed for 10 years on the electricity output. It may be claimed on any new wind farm put in service by December 2020. Efforts last year to scale back the credit failed. A bill to end the tax credit for projects put in service after June 2017 cleared a House subcommittee in early February. The bill would also cap the total amount of tax credits that can be claimed by all wind generators at $15 million a year starting in fiscal 2018.