McDermott Will & Emery

Thank You to Our Readers
By McDermott Will & Emery on Mar 6, 2023
Posted In Uncategorized
We greatly appreciate our readers over the past year and are pleased to share that we were recently recognized for our energy thought leadership in the 2023 JD Supra Readers’ Choice Awards, which acknowledge top authors and firms for their thought leadership in key topics during all of last year. Carl Fleming, a regular contributor...
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FERC Announces Tax Reform Actions and Eliminates Income Tax Allowance for Master Limited Partnerships
By McDermott Will & Emery and McDermott Will & Emery on Mar 23, 2018
Posted In FERC, Natural Gas, Power Markets, Project Development and Finance, Tax
FERC announced actions in response to the 2017 tax reform legislation and a revised income tax policy, which eliminates the income tax allowance for Master Limited Partnerships. Regulated entities should ensure that they comply with FERC’s orders regarding the treatment of income taxes and consider whether to file comments on the proposed rulemaking and notice...
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Highly Anticipated FERC Rule Removes Barriers to Electric Storage
By McDermott Will & Emery on Feb 20, 2018
Posted In FERC
On February 15, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a much-anticipated order designed to remove barriers to electric storage resource participation in organized wholesale electricity markets. The order—dubbed Order No. 841—creates new rules that require each regional transmission operator (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO) to revise its tariff to establish a “participation model”...
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Trump Administration Imposes Tariffs on Foreign Solar
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jan 23, 2018
Posted In Environmental, Renewables, Tax
Yesterday, the US Trade Representative announced that President Trump approved recommendations to impose a safeguard tariff on imported solar cells and modules under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974. The tariff will be in effect for the next four years at the following rates: This tariff is the result of petitions filed in...
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FERC Rejects Department of Energy Proposal Benefitting Coal and Nuclear
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jan 9, 2018
Posted In FERC
On January 8, 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Proposed Rule, which would have required organized wholesale electricity markets run by independent system operators (ISOs) or regional transmission organizations (RTOs) to establish tariff mechanisms for purchasing energy from eligible “reliability and resilience resources” and mandated a recovery of...
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The Senate’s New Base Erosion Tax: Highlights for Renewable Energy
By McDermott Will & Emery, Bradford E. LaBonte, Heather Cooper and Philip Tingle on Dec 8, 2017
Posted In Renewables, Tax, U.S. Congress
On December 2, 2017, the Senate approved its version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Senate Bill includes the base erosion and anti-abuse tax, a new tax intended to apply to companies that significantly reduce their US tax liability by making cross-border payments to affiliates. Given its potential to disrupt the financing of...
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Initial Republican Tax Reform Proposal Includes Tax Cuts and Changes to Energy Credits
By McDermott Will & Emery, Heather Cooper, Kevin Spencer and Philip Tingle on Nov 3, 2017
Posted In Featured, Power Markets, Project Development and Finance, Renewables, Tax, U.S. Congress
Changes to the energy credits proposed in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could impact the eligibility of renewable energy projects that had been relying on the guidance previously issued by the Internal Revenue Service. Continue Reading
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International Trade Commission Issues Recommendations for Tariffs on Imported Solar PV Equipment
By McDermott Will & Emery on Nov 3, 2017
Posted In Renewables, Tax
On October 31, 2017, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) released its recommendations to impose a tariff on imported solar equipment. The proposals it issued, however, would result in duties substantially lower than those sought by the petitioners. The ITC’s four commissioners issued several remedy recommendations, including, at the high end, a 35 percent tariff...
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Department of Energy Proposes Rule Benefiting Coal and Nuclear to FERC
By McDermott Will & Emery on Oct 3, 2017
Posted In FERC, Power Markets
On September 28, 2017, the US Department of Energy (DOE) submitted a proposed rule to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that, if implemented, could reshape organized wholesale electricity markets. Citing electric grid reliability and resiliency issues like the 2014 Polar Vortex and recent hurricanes, DOE asked FERC to enact a new compensation system for...
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IRS Rules (Again) That Taxpayers Are Not Entitled to Claimed Refined Coal Credits
By McDermott Will & Emery, Kevin Spencer and Roger J. Jones on Jul 28, 2017
Posted In Renewables, Tax
In a highly-anticipated Technical Advice Memorandum (TAM) dated March 23, 2017 and released on July 21, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled that two taxpayers who had invested in a Limited Liability Company that owned and operated a refined coal facility (the LLC) were not entitled to refined coal production credits they had claimed...
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