Comments of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy on the Hearing on Framework for Evaluating Certain Expiring Tax Provisions

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on a "Framework for Evaluating Expiring Tax Provisions." ACEEE submitted comments for the record suggesting that Congress should explicitly examine the benefits of the various expiring tax provisions relative to their costs and should only extend those incentives with benefits substantially greater than their cost. We also recommended that the limited available funds be targeted at instances where a technology or practice is not widespread, but with medium-term support (e.g., five years), markets can be transformed so that these technologies or practices become much more widely used even after tax incentives end.