[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 2, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E191-E192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE RURAL WIND ENERGY MODERNIZATION AND EXTENSION ACT 
                                OF 2021

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 2, 2021

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, today I introduced the Rural Wind 
Energy Modernization and Extension Act of 2021. This commonsense 
proposal builds on the success of the small wind investment tax credit 
by assisting farmers, ranchers, and small businesses in offsetting the 
up-front costs of developing and owning distributed wind turbines.
  Small wind turbines are commonly installed on residential, 
agricultural, commercial, industrial, and community sites and can range 
in size from a few-hundred-watt turbine at a remote cabin to a 5-
kilowatt turbine at a home to a multi-megawatt turbine at a 
manufacturing facility. These systems allow farmers, ranchers, and 
other consumers to cut their energy bills and, at times, sell power 
back into the grid.
  While this technology has grown in the past decade, federal policy to 
promote deployment of distributed wind has failed to keep up. Current 
law has constrained nameplate capacity in distributed wind projects and 
years of short-term extensions have created a significant amount of 
uncertainty in the distributed wind market. The Rural Wind Energy 
Modernization and Extension Act would increase the existing 100-
kilowatt limitation to 10 megawatts and provide long-term certainty for 
distributed wind projects for decades to come.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate 
to include this legislation in an infrastructure investment package.

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