The federal government passed the geothermal tax credits, and HVAC manufacturers are delivering state-of-the-art, energy-efficient geothermal products.
The geothermal industry had a rough year in 2017, mostly due to an unfair marketplace set up by the government. While solar and wind continued to enjoy the renewable tax credits, geothermal was left out in the cold.
Doug Dougherty has been president and CEO of the Geothermal Exchange Organization (GEO) since March of 2011. In that role, he became a major player in the lobbying effort to get the federal geothermal tax credits passed.
Following a contentious two-year struggle, the HVACR industry is enthusiastically applauding Congress’ decision to reinstate the federal residential and commercial geothermal heat pump tax credits.
On Dec. 15, 2017, a Senate-House Conference Committee released its agreed upon tax reform bill. But, to the surprise and dismay of GEO, our hard-fought language to finally bring tax credit parity back to the GHP industry was not included within the bill.
GEO has announced that the extension of the residential and commercial tax credits for geothermal heat pumps is contained in the tax bill released by the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, Indiana 9th District, visited the Geo-Flo plant in Bedford, Indiana, on April 21. Discussions included the state of the geothermal heat pump industry, as well as Geo-Flo's encouragement to support H.R. Bill 1090, which would extend the tax credit for investments in energy property with construction that begins before January 1, 2022.
WaterFurnace Intl. Inc. recently held its 2017 annual sales meeting in Denver, and as you can imagine, the 30 percent residential and 10 percent commercial federal tax credits for geothermal heat pump systems that expired Dec. 31, 2016, were on everybody’s minds.
Since the tax credits went into effect in 2008, many contractors have experienced a significant boost in their geothermal businesses. And, now that the geothermal tax credits have lapsed, contractors and manufacturers are prepared to continue forward without them.