The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have both passed a tax bill — and that has implications for the energy industry in Wyoming. One change that benefits the energy industry, as well as retail, pharmaceuticals, banks, and many other industries is the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to only 20 percent.
Kathleen Sgamma, President of the Western Energy Alliance, says that’s the primary benefit oil and gas companies around the west will enjoy, as well as a simplification of the tax code. Allan Marks, a partner with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP whose worked on project financing across energy sectors, says renewable energy is targeted in both bills in different ways.
In both, a primary incentive to develop renewable energy projects, the production tax credit, would be weakened. Both Sgamma and Marks help explain the impacts of tax reform on two sides of the energy industry.