6.1a ERMUSR 03-14-2023 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2023 Federal Legislative Priorities MMUA and its members support the Investing in Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). These two pieces of federal legislation will benefit grid resiliency and reliability, clean energy technologies, and electric vehicle infrastructure. When it passed the IIJA, Congress took critical steps when it authorized various new federal infrastructure programs. Under the IRA, Congress extended long-standing energy tax credits and created new direct payment credits for municipal electric utilities, rural co-ops, and other not-for-profit entities. The IRA authorizes these tax credits as refundable and transferable, a first for public power systems. However, it only protected public bonds from sequestration for two years and it failed to reauthorize the advanced refunding of bonds. The grants authorized in the IRA and the IIJA will be extremely beneficial towards projects that seek to increase grid reliability and resiliency, upgrade technology for cleaner and more efficient operations, and expand infrastructure investments for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and other facilities. However, the advantages offered by the IIJA and IRA are lessened if treated as taxable, or if funding is not secure due to Congressional threats of recission or sequestration. MMUA asks Congress to consider: • New federal rules and regulations for both the IIJA and IRA implementation should be simple, clear, and flexible. • Benefits offered under the IIJA and IRA should be tax exempt. • Congress should oppose attempts to repeal or rescind these new federal programs and resist attempts to impose sequestration provisions. • The supply chain crisis hinders investment and economic development; Congress needs to help solve the shortage of distribution transformers and other critical industry materials. Further actions under the Defense Production Act aimed clearly at the increased production of transformers should be encouraged. • MMUA and its members support reasonable permitting reform legislation, including streamlining the federal permitting process for all types of utilities: generation, transmission, and pipeline facilities. • Workforce recruitment and retention assistance and incentives would be welcomed. • Cybersecurity assistance in the form of guidance, best practices, and funding would be helpful, but excessive reporting requirements and other mandates would hinder municipal utilities’ operations. • Similar assistance regarding the physical security of utility infrastructure would also be helpful. • We support a pricing mechanism that would protect utilities and their customers against sudden spikes in natural gas prices such as were seen during the 2021 polar vortex in Minnesota and throughout the Midwest. PRESERVE AND PROTECT ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE AND INVESTMENTS 228