The Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction expired at the end of 2016. On February 9, President Trump signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 into law, which contained a number of provisions including extending the CBTD to the end of 2017. This means lighting upgrade projects completed in 2017 may qualification for the deduction.
Legislation + Regulation
California Regulates Incandescent Lamps
On January 1, 2018, new Title 20 regulations went into effect requiring general-service lamps achieve an efficacy of 45 lumens/W. While certain specialty incandescent lamps will continue to be available for sale in the state, consumers will be limited to a choice of LED or CFL for general-service sockets once current inventories of incandescent and halogen lamps are sold.
DOE Triggers Incandescent Backstop Rule (correcting previous article)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has issued a final rule related to energy standards for rough-service and vibration-service incandescent lamps. This rule codifies backstop provisions in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, establishing a maximum rated wattage of 40W and packaging limitation of one lamp per package when sold at the retail level. The effective date for the rule was January 25, 2018.