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Generation incentives on front burner
The Doyle administration wants a bill passed and both
parties in both legislative houses want one too. Enactment of new
financial incentives for communities to accept new electric generation
facilities is now just a matter of agreeing on the details.
At press time for The Wire, it remained to be seen
how easy or troublesome those details would be.
The most basic issue was whether the proposal would
become part of the budget bill or be taken up as separate legislation.
Other issues that could require some horse-trading
had not yet been identified. One bill draft received a Senate hearing
in the final week of May, and another was expected.
The draft sponsored by Senator Ron Brown (R–Eau Claire)
and heard by the Senate Committee on Energy and Utilities called
for incentive payments based on a new plant's megawatt capacity
multiplied by $2,000. Additional payments could be awarded if an
existing power plant or brownfield site is used and for using renewable
energy resources.
Financed from the utility gross receipts tax, payments
would come from a new utility account rather than the shared revenue
program, the source of state utility aid payments to local government
under current law.
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