Solar bill could provide tax breaks to panel manufacturers
The entrance to REC Silicon on Road L Northeast in Moses Lake. A measure backed by Washington State Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, would give tax breaks to companies seeking to build solar panels and components in Washington state.
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald
MOSES LAKE — A bill proposed by Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, to give tax breaks to companies seeking to build solar panels in Washington is expected to get a hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Thursday.
Warnick said Senate Bill 5849, is “moving through” the Senate, and is scheduled for a committee hearing on Thursday, Feb. 17. Warnick said the measure is not bound by the Feb. 15 cutoff rules that apply to policy bills because it’s a tax incentive.
“And it’s necessary to implement the budget,” she said.
The bill would extend a targeted 43% business and occupation tax cut for manufacturers of solar panels and components another five years past the original expiration date of 2027 to 2032.
Warnick said she is having to work to convince colleagues in the legislature that a tax incentive for solar manufacturing is beneficial.
The legislation is tied to a potential major investment in the works that would allow REC Silicon, which halted output in 2019 following a lengthy trade dispute with China that blocked access to that country’s solar panel market, to restart solar-grade polysilicon production.
“I’m just trying to do my part to make Washington state attractive for investment,” Warnick said.
Richard Hanover, business development director for the Port of Moses Lake, said during a meeting of the commission overseeing the port on Monday he is watching the progress of the Warnick bill closely as part of the major potential investment.
“It’s such a big project, and there’s still quite a bit of stuff going through,” Hanover told commissioners. “And REC is talking to other companies in similar industries.”
Hanover also pointed to proposed federal legislation, the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act – also known as SEMA – sponsored by Rep. Daniel Kildee, D-Michigan, which was introduced last September. SEMA would provide federal tax credits for solar manufacturing “at every stage of the supply chain” in order to foster and sustain domestic solar production in the United States, according to a synopsis of the bill available at the website of Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia.
REC Silicon is listed as one of the companies supporting SEMA.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.