Leveling the Playing Field for Renewable Energy

Here’s an important white paper that my friend Tim Kingston just sent me, that frankly, I’m unlikely to read.

Say what?

It’s on a financial issue, master limited partnerships (MLPs), that I’ve heard plenty about over the last two meetings of the Renewable Energy Finance Forum, which have both featured numerous speakers on this topic. 

In a nutshell, MLPs are a hotly favored, low-cost way of raising capital for energy projects; they dominate the world of oil and gas, but currently are illegal for solar and wind.  There is a movement to get Congress to make a change that would create a level playing field.  To the degree that the cost of capital is lower for oil and gas than it is for solar and wind, the former have a significant financial advantage, and many see this is wrong, both morally and pragmatically. Yet the measure to level the field is running into a stunning amount of opposition.

Wow.  Who could oppose such an idiot-simple concept, rooted squarely in fair-mindedness, whose only result would be a healthier, safer, and more sustainable world?  Let me think on that a bit, and get back to you.