Think tank seeks expert input for energy subsidy wiki

The Institute for Policy Integrity, a non-partisan advocacy organization and policy cost-benefit analysis think tank sponsored by the New York University School of Law, is seeking expert contributors for a wiki recently launched to evaluate the actual cost of energy tax credits and how the credits impact applicable businesses.

The Energy Tax Breaks Wiki features categories for oil and gas, ethanol, coal, wind, solar and other renewable energy sources that have been stocked with tax code sections applicable to each industry, but in order to compile a precise accounting of the subsidies, organizers need assistance from knowledgeable professionals in each area. When information provided to the wiki reaches critical mass, presumably within a few months, the Institute for Policy Integrity will compile the data and attempt to provide policymakers with an overarching analysis of energy subsidies that can be used to better inform their decision making.

“We can’t make smart tax policy with respect to energy development until we at least know what’s going on,” said Michael Livermore, executive director of the Institute for Policy Integrity. As many in the ethanol industry have discovered during the past year’s energy subsidies debate, it is difficult to pinpoint the precise amount of tax credits that are being provided to one specific energy sector, and even more difficult to determine how the tax credit affects the industry’s performance. Livermore said that because there are many tax provisions with the potential to benefit energy companies, including some obscure provisions such as rate of depreciation, and because the tax code doesn’t provide a record of which companies are taking advantage of credits, it can be difficult to accurately analyze tax. For that reason, the institute is inviting tax professionals, lawyers, economists, academics and others with knowledge on the topic to contribute. “Really, the folks who are interacting with the tax code on the corporate side or on the government side who have a good sense of what’s going on,” Livermore added.

The wiki is set up so that contributors can add their input on a tax code provision for a specific industry and explain how it interacts with a company’s bottom line to provide a break for energy development, Livermore said. “Any numbers we can get in terms of the extent to which that tax provision actually is providing a real subsidy for companies would be helpful,” he said.

Livermore expects the wiki will be an ongoing project and evolve along with the tax code, but for now the institute will concentrate on compiling as much expert input as possible related to the existing provisions.