$150 Million Of Credits Available Under Phase II Of Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit Program

The qualifying advanced energy project credit program (the "Program") was established in 2009 by the Treasury Department ("Treasury"), the Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS") and the Department of Energy (the "DOE") following the enactment of Section 48C of the Internal Revenue Code (the "Code"), part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009. The initial phase of the Program ("Phase I") was designed to facilitate the allocation, on a competitive basis, of $2.3 billion in credits to taxpayers that invested in the re-equipment, expansion or establishment of domestic manufacturing facilities producing certain clean, renewable or efficient energy products, which investment was certified by Treasury (each, a "qualifying advanced energy project"). Treasury, in accordance with the terms of Code Section 48C(d)(4), recently conducted a review of the credits allocated under Phase I and announced on February 7, 2013, that approximately $150 million in credits is available for reallocation under a second phase of the Program ("Phase II"). Notice 2013-12 provides the parameters of Phase II of the Program. As with Phase I, the IRS will consider a project under Phase II only if the DOE provides a recommendation and ranking for the project. The DOE will provide a recommendation and ranking only if it determines that the project has a reasonable expectation of commercial viability and merits a recommendation based on the project's potential for domestic job creation and for reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, its technological innovation, the cost of any generated or stored energy, and the projected time to project completion. In Phase II, the DOE has said that it will also consider diversity of geography, technology, project size and regional economic development. Therefore, for each project it sponsors, a taxpayer must submit: (1) a concept paper for DOE consideration (the "Concept Paper"); and (2), if invited by the DOE, (x) an application for...