The Alabama Jobs Act, a landmark economic incentive law enacted in 2015, could soon apply to companies that generate renewable energy as a covered activity in the program, with the state Legislature further expanding it in 2021 and 2023. On Tuesday, state Sen. Arthur Orr introduced the proposal in the Alabama Senate Energy and Commerce Committee. SB330.

“This is not going to happen in the next few decades, this is not going to happen in a year or two, but how do we position ourselves as a state to be a powerhouse of electricity generation for decades to come,” said Rep. Ohr (R-Decatur). “We've seen announcements coming out of Washington on renewable energy, and that's part of this bill, but how do we provide low-cost electricity for industry, for homes and for our citizens for years to come?”

Orr’s bill would implement broader standards for what constitutes a qualified facility, consistent with the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) definition, allowing small generating facilities that meet certain ownership and efficiency standards to benefit from state incentives designed to spur job creation and capital investment in Alabama.

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“This allows our utilities to look to the future and include in their planning where they can build renewable energy facilities. If this bill passes, the Legislature would first set out where out-of-state utilities can have renewable energy facilities and encourage such facilities that could potentially spread outside of Alabama with our taxpayer dollars,” Blake Hardwich, president of the Alabama Energy Association, said Tuesday.

A representative from the Alabama Department of Commerce urged consideration of the program's cap, saying expanding incentives to benefit renewable energy facilities is fully aligned with Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair's upcoming strategic plan for attracting the industry, but said “we need more time to implement and develop the report.”

“We're currently starting our state strategic plan on economic development and will begin quantitative studies next week,” Stefania Jones said. “The main goal of that is to look at target areas such as renewable energy and figure out what are the most profitable and worthy parts of those areas, and I think this is definitely something that will be featured in that.”

The Senate committee held a hearing on SB 330 on Tuesday, the 24th day of the 2024 state legislative session.

Grayson Everett is the state and politics editor for Yellow Hammer News. You can follow him on Twitter. Grayson