Washington's Hand: Federal and International Tax
Faraday's read: federal tax policy rarely chooses a county, but it sets the temperature of the entire market. A credit that improves the after-tax return on clean generation makes behind-the-meter power projects pencil out; a depreciation change that quietly raised taxable income made every capital-heavy builder's cash flow worse for a few years. None of it moves a campus across a state line. All of it moves the decision to build at all — which is the decision that comes first.
Knowledge check
Why does Faraday treat federal tax credits as setting the market's hurdle rate rather than as a siting lever?
Show the answer
Because federal credits and depreciation rules change the after-tax economics of building anywhere in the country roughly uniformly, so they influence whether and how much gets built, not which specific locality wins a given project.