While there is quite a bit of uncertainty about the future of the IRA, the clean energy tax credits appear to be the most robust part of the law. They have extremely strong, bipartisan interest groups behind them. In addition, despite being the biggest line item in the bill, their budget impact is small compared…
Every January, the project finance law team at Norton Rose Fulbright brings together infrastructure investment experts to discuss trends across the American energy finance landscape. These Cost of Capital Outlook reports have been a fount of information for our team’s energy finance modeling work. There’s no other source we’ve found that so succinctly covers trends…
Lost in the rush at the end of the year was news that HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing released a notice on December 26th (PIH 2024-40) updating the governance of the demolition and disposition of public housing property under Section 18 of the Housing Act of 1937. Public housing authorities (PHAs) interested in…
On December 11, 2024, HUD published a notice establishing the Operating Cost Adjustment Factors (OCAFs) they will be using for FY25 and requesting comments on some methodological changes to how they are calculated. While often overlooked as a bureaucratic exercise, the establishment of OCAFs actually has an incredible impact on the funding level for projects…
On December 3, 2024, CPE Senior Associate for Energy Finance Advait Arun presented at the University of Sydney’s Climate Economy political economy and geography workshop about how the Inflation Reduction Act builds state capacity in the public sector. His presentation focused on three aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act—namely, elective pay (direct pay), the Loan…
On November 12th, the Office of Multifamily Housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced they have officially rebranded the process widely known as “Faircloth-to-RAD,” doing away with the bureaucratic moniker in favor of “Restore-Rebuild.” For the past few years, Faircloth-to-RAD, (hereafter referred to as Restore-Rebuild), has generated interest as a new pathway for public housing…
In February of 2024, HUD and Treasury announced an indefinite extension of the Section 542(c) Housing Finance Agency Risk-Sharing Initiative offered through HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank (FFB). The Risk-Sharing Initiative allows HFAs to originate mortgages for new construction or rehabilitation of properties with affordable housing rental units. HUD and…
The past month has seen a flurry of new power purchasing agreements (PPAs) between big tech and nuclear power companies—reviving the fortunes of a sector that had been struggling since the high-profile cancellation of Nuscale’s commercial pilot with Utah’s utilities and the cost overruns at Vogtle 3. Tech companies believe that they can gain major…
There’s a point in the development and deployment of infrastructure where developers need to replace investors seeking asset value appreciation with investors willing to provide the kind of longer-term debt financing that can underwrite project deployment.
This post was originally published in the the July 2024 edition of our monthly Capacity Factor newsletter. For the public sector to access all of the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment facilities, states and municipalities must develop or augment their legal and financial capabilities, including: filling out IRS tax forms, underwriting, project development, and strategic planning.…