Stoel Rives attorney Morten Lund today discussed in a Wall Street Journal article the impact of a SolarCity Corp. lawsuit over the Section 1603 U.S. government cash grant program. Under the temporary program, established by Congress in 2009 as part of the Stimulus Bill, entities that qualified for Production Tax Credits (PTC) or Investment Tax Credits (ITC) for certain energy projects could elect to receive an immediate cash grant from the U.S. Treasury instead of the tax credits. In its suit, filed in February in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (PDF), SolarCity argued that the Treasury exceeded its authority by changing its cost-basis rules for determining grant amounts, resulting in final grants that were less than was proper under the law.
Lund suggested that if SolarCity's suit is successful, other participants in the grant program might be encouraged to file cases of their own or push for higher grants on what remains of pending applications.
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"Solar Installer Sues for Grant Funds" was published by The Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2013.