Tiger One being powered by Solar One

The LSU Sports Radio Network pregame radio show, hosted by Jim Hawthorne and live from Tiger One Village for every home game, is powered by South Coast Solar’s mobile solar unit, “Solar One.”

“We are extraordinarily pleased that LSU is showing leadership with its commitment to become a more sustainable university.  While powering Tiger One on Saturday’s with clean renewable energy is a great first step, and we’re excited about potential permanent solar energy installations throughout the campus in the months and years ahead,” says Troy Von Otnott, President of South Coast Solar.

“The unique partnership between South Coast Solar and LSU has allowed us continue to bring forth an exciting pregame atmosphere at Tiger One Village while reducing our carbon footprint,” said Ward Wyatt, general manager of LSU Sports Properties. “We are pleased to announce Tiger One runs on solar power at home games, thanks to the partnership with South Coast Solar.”

Headquartered in New Orleans, South Coast Solar is the premier solar energy company in the southeast. For more information on South Coast Solar or to receive your free solar energy estimate, click here.

The forefront of excitement on gameday, Zatarain’s Tiger One Village features a different band each home game, the live pregame radio show, the ultimate in corporate hospitality, concessions for all tailgaters and a perfect viewing spot for the football team’s walk down Victory Hill and the golden band’s March to Death Valley. For more information on Tiger One and the Zatarain’s Tiger One Village, click here.

On gameday, visit Solar One, South Coast Solar’s mobile unit, located between the PMAC and Tiger Stadium, in Tiger One Village.

SOURCE: lsusports.net

Micah Galy, a lead solar technician for South Coast Solar, installs solar electric panels on the roof of a Garden District home. (Photo by Frank Aymami)

Officials from New Orleans want incentives similar to those that lured Sylvester Stallone to Louisiana to make his next action feature film offered to the state’s renewable energy industry, which they say could be the next economic blockbuster.

But whether the Legislature, which convenes today in Baton Rouge, has the stomach to offer more tax breaks while making drastic budget cuts remains to be seen.

Backers of House Bill 733, also known as the Louisiana Green Jobs Initiative, say it would attract jobs and build an industry on a “green” foundation — energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric, and products and services that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use.

The measure, sponsored by state Rep. Walt Leger III, D-New Orleans, and crafted with the help of New Orleans City Councilwoman Shelley Midura’s office, calls for incentives similar to those available to the movie and theater industry. It proposes tax breaks for infrastructure development and payroll, including a bonus credit for companies that hire graduates of Louisiana vocational training programs.

Proponents say the incentives could go a long way toward positioning a state that has long been an oil and gas hub as an epicenter of an environmentally sustainable growth industry. Louisiana, advocates contend, is well suited to capture and develop opportunities in renewable energy, in some respects even more so than other locales that might on the surface appear to be more obvious choices.

Seung Hong, Midura’s chief of staff, points to the energy potential to be found in the state’s agricultural, solar, wind and water assets, along with the recent proliferation of “demand-side incentives” on the state and local level.

Included among these are the state tax credit that refunds 50 percent of the first $25,000 of the cost of installing residential solar or wind power systems and a new energy-efficiency financing program the City Council ratified this year.

“The goal of this legislation,” Hong said of the Green Jobs Initiative, “is to make sure that all of that demand we’re creating is focused” on helping grow a new economy. “And we’re ahead of the rest of the country on this. It’s not like California is 15 years ahead of us on this. They’re not. We’re in a position where we could actually become a national leader in this new economy.”

Also, despite the budgetary shortfall the state is facing, Hong said the situation “is nowhere near that faced by places like California.”

In Louisiana and New Orleans, officials historically have pursued low-paying and low-mobility jobs, Hong said, and too often have been late to the game in pursuing new industries, such as recent efforts to attract a biotech sector — an industry already well-advanced in other parts of the country and requiring a highly skilled labor pool.

“Green jobs,” by contrast, “are white collar and blue collar jobs,” Hong said, based in areas ranging from research science to solar panel installation, and they tend to pay well.

The starting salary for solar panel installers in the New Orleans area, for example, is between $37,000 and $40,000, said Scott Oman, chief technology officer for solar energy company South Coast Solar.

Advocates believe the green jobs legislation carries appeal for Republicans and Democrats alike. Still, significant challenges remain, perhaps foremost is finding a money source at a time when the state faces serious budgetary constraints.

“Being able to clearly articulate a concrete return on investment may be challenging,” Leger conceded.

Given the state’s financial picture and the bevy of tax breaks proposed for ratification and extension this year, Jim Brandt, president of the nonprofit research organization Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, suggested passage might be unrealistic.

“I just sense that there are so many of them for so many laudable purposes that I don’t see many of them going any place,” Brandt said. “Unless there’s a change in the fiscal outlook, which I don’t think anyone’s expected, it’s just a very difficult year for new tax credits.”

Asked for his thoughts on the green jobs initiative, Don Briggs, Louisiana Oil and Gas Association president, suggested proponents look to expand the definition of green.

In Louisiana, Briggs said, the biggest “green opportunity” to be found is in natural gas.

“It’s the one fuel that we have plenty of,” he said, pointing to the Haynesville Shale find in north Louisiana. “That’s what you have to concentrate on.”

To that end, Briggs is lobbying for another tax incentive program, one that aims to encourage the sale of alternative vehicle fuels, including compressed natural gas. He has called passage of the legislation his organization’s No. 1 priority this legislative session.

Despite the obstacles his bill could face, Leger is adamant the measure is worthy of passage.

“It is imperative that the state make strategic investments to encourage economic investment and growth,” he said.•

Source: New Orleans City Business.com

Garland Robinette, Ben Norwood-Tax Attorney for Adams and Reese, LLC  and Scott Oman-Chief Technology Officer for South Coast Solar discuss and clear up the common mis-conception that the LA state solar tax credit is capped at $12,500.

The “solar tax credit bill” from the State of Louisiana says that 50% of the cost of each solar system installed up to $25,000.  They key words are “each system”, and residents can install as many systems as they want up to 25kW. The Louisiana Department of Revenue has further clarified that  “[e]ach residence or apartment project in the state is eligible for tax credits for the number of separate complete solar electric and solar thermal energy systems necessary to ensure that the residence or apartment project is supplied with all of its energy needs.”

Some of the key points of the Louisiana Dept. of Revenue’s rulings on the law are listed below.

1.    Louisiana Revised Statute 47:6030 authorizes an income tax credit for the purchase and installation of solar energy systems by a Louisiana homeowner.
2.    La. R.S. 47:6030(B)(1) provides that the “credit shall be equal to fifty percent of the cost of each wind energy system or solar energy system, including installation costs, that is purchased and    installed on or after January 1, 2008.”
3.    “The credit may be used in addition to any federal tax credits earned for the same system.”  La. R.S. 47:6030(B)(1).
4.    La. R.S. 47:6030(C) provides that the Tax Credit is refundable.
5.    LAC 61:I.1907(C)(1) provides that “[e]ach residence or apartment project in the state is eligible for tax credits for the number of separate complete solar electric and solar thermal energy systems necessary to ensure that the residence or apartment project is supplied with all of its energy needs.”
6.    LAC 61:I.1907 (D)(3) provides that “[e]ligible solar electric systems under the tax credit include grid-connected net metering systems, grid-connected net metering with battery backup, stand alone alternating current (AC) systems, and stand alone direct current (DC) systems designed to produce electrical energy.”
7.    LAC 61:I.1907 (D)(4) provides that “s[]olar thermal systems eligible under the tax credit include systems designed to produce domestic hot water, systems designed to produce thermal energy for use in heating and cooling systems and solar pool heating systems.”

What this all means is that a true 50% of all of the solar energy systems that you install on your home will be covered by our amazing 50% refundable state tax credits.

Written by: Butler Ives

The five commission members went into executive session for 90 minutes to discuss Entergy Louisiana LLC’s application to repower a former natural gas plant, Little Gypsy in St. Charles Parish, as a coal and petroleum coke plant. The docket item also gave them the authority to discuss construction and financing of the project.

Commissioners said they were meeting privately, because they needed to discuss litigation strategy concerning a lawsuit filed by the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic on behalf of local environmental organizations challenging the project. When they emerged, they said they were unable to comment.
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Commission Chairman Lambert Boissiere III went so far as to say he could not even comment about the rising costs of the project based on material publicly available from the commission, which regulates utilities.

“I can’t comment on any material facts on Little Gypsy at this time,” Boissiere said. “The one thing Louisiana ratepayers need is a diversification of its fuel sources.”

Commissioner James Field, who put the item on the agenda for discussion, also said he could not talk because of the litigation. Field said he did not know anything about the cost of the project, which has increased from $1 billion to $1.76 billion, but it seemed to him that costs should be going down with the decline in construction and demand for materials because of the recession.

“That really wasn’t discussed,” Field said.

The agenda item was puzzling because the commission approved the project in November 2007, and comments on a second docket, dealing with a request by Entergy to have customers start paying for the project while it is under construction, are not due until Feb. 19.

Some wondered whether the executive session and the reluctance to discuss anything about the project might be signs that Little Gypsy may go the way of other coal projects across the country that have stalled.

On Monday, for example, Nevada’s major utility, NV Energy Inc., announced it would postpone a proposed $5 billion coal plant because of increasing environmental and economic uncertainties.

Congress is expected to take steps to tax carbon emissions because of concerns about global warming. While the form of those taxes is unknown, they would make operation of coal plants more expensive. According to NV Energy, its project is on hold until technologies are developed to burn coal with fewer emissions or to store carbon byproducts.

Earlier in the day, the Sierra Club and the Alliance for Affordable Energy, two groups involved in the Little Gypsy lawsuit, released a report they commissioned from an economics research firm in Arkansas. The report stated that the project will be more expensive than Entergy projected.

The groups contend that Entergy in its plans to repower Little Gypsy failed to adequately account for the potential cost of carbon-emission control legislation, increases in the cost of power-plant construction and increases in the cost of coal because of worldwide demand and that the costs could easily exceed $2 billion.
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“We will be paying for this plant for 20 years before we get any benefit,” said John Atkeison, director of climate and clean energy programs at the Alliance, a New Orleans watchdog group. “Let’s find a better way to do it.”

Estimates submitted by Entergy to the PSC have stated that the plant would provide economic benefits for customers in 13 years.

Entergy plans to rebuild the Little Gypsy plant as one that burns coal and petroleum coke, a refinery byproduct abundant in Louisiana, to diversify its fuel sources as a hedge against the cost of natural gas. Natural-gas prices have shot up in recent years and peaked in July, but they have been falling with the economy ever since.

Although it was approved more than a year ago by the PSC, the project was delayed because of an unrelated court case involving mercury emissions in Washington, D.C. According to Entergy, the costs went up while the project languished because of increases in construction and labor costs and the cost of having money sit idle. The company also stated it increased provisions for the cost of unknowns in the project, which is expected to open in 2013.

Michael Twomey, vice president of Louisiana regulatory affairs for Entergy Services Inc., declined to comment about the report, because the environmental groups have sued over the conversion of the plant.

“This case is in litigation, and we’re not going to comment,” Twomey said.

It is unclear whether or under what conditions the PSC has the ability to change its mind about a project that has already won its approval, since companies make large investment decisions based on regulatory approvals.

Melissa Watson, a staff attorney at the PSC, said the PSC set up a docket to monitor Little Gypsy, as it did with Cleco Power LLC ’s Rodemacher Unit 3 plant north of Alexandria. Like Little Gypsy, that facility would burn a variety of solid fuels, including coal and petroleum coke. It is expected to open this fall.

“I don’t want to say that the commission can never look back,” Watson said. “Entergy has a continuing obligation to prudently manage the project.”

A deadline for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve or reject the project passed without comment Friday, leaving the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality free to issue a key permit for the plant if it desires.

According to Entergy, it expects to soon receive the remaining permits necessary to rebuild the plant.

Source:  Nola.com

In Louisiana and other energy-producing and consuming states, alarms are sounding, because the proposed budget could well be the end of economic vitality as we know it.  Louisiana has long been called “The Energy State,” with the oil and gas industry providing state and local governments billions of dollars and creating thousands upon thousands of jobs.
But, in an attempt to chart a totally new energy course for the nation, the FY 2010 federal budget, called “A New Era of Responsibility Renewing America’s Promise,” is simply a plan to destroy the nation’s domestic oil and gas industry.  While calling on the country to reduce its dependence on foreign oil to assure national security, the Obama Administration proposes to eliminate the tools that have been given to our domestic industry to seek and find oil and gas here at home.

The new budget proposes at least $31.5 billion in taxes and fees from the oil and gas companies over the next decade to pay for its “transition to a clean economy.”  No longer will intangible drilling costs be expensed—that means there will be no more available capital investment for high-risk drilling.  No longer will wells be depreciated.  No longer will credit be given for wells that produce only small amounts of oil and gas or for enhanced oil recovery projects.  Gone is the manufacturing tax deduction.  What the industry will get is a new 13 percent excise tax on production in the Gulf of Mexico!

Proponents of the plan point to industry profits in recent years; however, they totally ignore current realities.  Just take a look at Louisiana’s current budget and budget proposals for next year to see those realities.  When oil topped $100 a barrel, the state of Louisiana amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in surpluses.  When the price dropped, what happened?  Budgets got slashed.

The oil and gas industry responded similarly—when the price for oil and gas dropped, it stopped investing.  What was thought to be a great boon to the economy of north Louisiana and the state as a whole, when Haynesville Shale leasing was at its peak last year, has now slowed to a trickle.

This downturn in oil exploration and production has occurred despite the fact that the industry currently receives the federal incentives and more favorable tax treatment.  What will be the effect of eliminating those incentives plus adding even more tax burdens on the industry under the new federal taxing plan?  For Louisiana, investment in oil and gas would likely drop by $6 billion a year, the State General Fund would drop by another $2.3 billion a year, and unemployment would probably exceed 10 percent.

At the other end of the “double whammy” are Louisiana’s individuals, businesses, and industries.  These are the folks that consume the oil and gas and electricity.  The proposed budget hits them too, with what’s called “cap and trade” with an estimated national impact of $150 billion in increased energy costs.

So, where are we going and how will we pay for it?  We’re headed toward what the U. S. Department of Energy calls “a low-carbon economy” paid for by taxes on our oil and gas consumers and producers.  Though “a low-carbon economy” may be a long-term Administration goal, it will be a short-term reality in Louisiana.  The combined effect of the taxes on Louisiana’s producers and consumers will assure that there will be much less production and consumption of hydrocarbons in Louisiana.

Source: BayouBuzz.com

La State Resident Tax Form