Overview

EEI represents investor-owned electric companies on industry tax, finance, and accounting issues, promoting sound business practices and regulatory policies that ensure electric companies are well-positioned to deliver the safe, reliable, affordable, and resilient energy that customers need and expect.

Key Facts

>$200 Billion
Invested In Energy Security
EEI member companies are projected to invest more than $200 billion this year to make the energy grid smarter, stronger, cleaner, more dynamic, and more secure.
~$45 Billion
In Customer Savings
EEI estimates that approximately $45 billion will be passed through to customers in the form of lower bills from 2025–2031 due to existing tax incentives.
>$25 Billion
Paid For State and Local Taxes
EEI member companies often are the highest state and local taxpayers in their respective states, collectively paying more than $25 billion annually. This revenue goes toward funding schools, public safety services, and local road construction and maintenance.

Energy Tax Credits

EEI’s member companies and their regulators share the goal of providing customers with safe and reliable electricity at the lowest cost possible. 

State regulators factor federal taxes into their process for setting electricity rates, and they require electric companies to pass tax credit savings directly through to customers. That means every dollar EEI’s member companies receive from federal tax credits or from the transfer of federal tax credits helps to lower customer bills.

EEI estimates that approximately $45 billion will be passed through to customers in the form of lower electricity rates through 2031 due to existing tax incentives.

Energy Tax Credits Benefit Electricity Customers and Support Energy Dominance Goals

Transferability Significantly Reduces Electricity Costs and Promotes Efficient Use of Tax Credits

Joint Letter in Support of Existing Energy Tax Credits (January 2025)

  • Electric companies are highly regulated at the federal and state levels. State regulators determine the rates that EEI’s member companies charge their customers for electricity and require these companies to pass the benefits of tax credits directly through to customers. State regulators also carefully review and approve electric companies’ integrated resource plans for building or adding new generation.
  • Different types of generation have different timelines for when they can feasibly be placed in service. While dispatchable generation like natural gas is an important part of the generation mix, new natural gas facilities take about five years to complete due to the high global demand for natural gas turbines and other supply chain constraints delays. 
  • Without existing tax incentives, including the technology-neutral tax credits (section 48E/45Y) and the nuclear credit (section 45U), state regulators will have to decide between delaying or cancelling much-needed generation projects or raising electricity prices significantly.
  • Demand for electricity is rising at the fastest pace in decades in communities across the country. In the event of a significant reduction in these tax credits, EEI estimates that installed generation capacity will decline by about 75 gigawatts through 2031, risking America’s ability to maintain its global edge on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.
  • EEI also supports preserving transferability, which is a critical financing mechanism that reduces the cost of capital, maximizes the benefit of tax credits flowing to customers, and promotes fiscal responsibility of government dollars by increasing efficiency of the tax credits. 
  • The energy tax credits help to strengthen America’s energy security by reducing costs for electric customers, accelerating technological innovation, and promoting job creation. 
More

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

On December 20, 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the most comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. tax code in more than 30 years. The final legislation included the provisions that are benefitting electricity customers and encouraging much-needed investments in America’s energy security.

EEI and our member companies strongly support the efforts underway in Congress to extend provisions of the TCJA that are set to expire.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) Benefits Electric Companies—and Electricity Customers

  • EEI member companies worked closely with lawmakers to pass TCJA, and this legislation continues to benefit electricity customers. 
  • As Congress continues to debate whether to extend the TCJA, it is critical that lawmakers recognize that there are two key aspects that differentiate electric companies from other businesses.
    • The first is the regulated environment in which electric companies operate. The rates that electric companies are allowed to charge for electricity are regulated by state and federal government entities, and, in some cases, the capital structure of electric companies (e.g., the debt-equity ratio) also is regulated by these same entities.
    • The second aspect is that the electric power industry is one of the most capital-intensive in the country. EEI’s member companies are projected to invest more than $200 billion this year to make the energy grid smarter, stronger, cleaner, more dynamic, and more secure.
  • To make large capital investments each year, EEI’s member companies use a combination of equity and debt while maintaining high credit quality. This makeup of debt vs. equity is intended to keep the cost of capital as low as possible for customers because, over time, the costs of these investments are factored into customers’ bills.
  • Preserving the current deduction for interest expense on corporate debt, which is a normal and essential cost for businesses, is crucial to reducing the cost of capital and, therefore, customer rates. This is especially important when electric companies are making significant investments to meet rising demand for electricity and to strengthen America’s energy security.
  • The TCJA preserved the ability for EEI member companies to fully deduct interest expenses, and EEI continues to support this critical provision.
More

Corporate Tax Issues – SALT and CAMT

Preserving the ability for EEI companies to deduct state and local taxes (SALT) is pro-growth tax policy and ensures our industry is not disproportionately hit with a backdoor tax hike.

It also is critical that other taxes, like the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT), do not disproportionately harm capital-intensive industries like the electric power industry. EEI has encouraged the Treasury Department to issue clarifying guidance that would adjust how the CAMT calculation factors in the costs for maintaining and repairing the U.S. energy grid.

This update would help to even the playing field for electric companies and reduce needless cost pressure on customers.

The Deduction for Corporate State and Local Taxes (C-SALT) Should Be Maintained

Joint Letter on State and Local Taxes (May 2025)

The Financial Statement Income for Capitalized Repair Costs of Regulated Electric Companies Must Be Adjusted in the Implementation of the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax

Joint Letter on the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (December 2024) 

  • As owners and operators of America’s critical energy infrastructure, electric companies own significant real estate. As a result, they pay a substantial amount in taxes to states and municipalities, and they usually are the largest payers of state and local taxes in their respective states. 
  • These state and local taxes support jobs, local schools, public safety services like police and fire departments, local road construction and maintenance, and other important community infrastructure projects. Communities rely on this funding to support a significant percentage of their programs and services. 
  • The deduction for state and local taxes long has been considered a normal business expense. Removing it would have an outsized impact on electric companies. These increased taxes would make it harder to support investments in the energy grid and would raise the cost of electricity for customers.
  • Electric companies support maintaining the deduction for state and local taxes as a normal business expense.
  • In addition, EEI member companies are facing a disproportionate tax burden under the CAMT due to member companies’ regulatory accounting, which requires them to capitalize and depreciate repair expenditures, rather than deducting them immediately. 
  • Imposing an additional tax on items capitalized by regulated electric companies will impact job creation, increase electric bills for customers, and slow the progress being made to build new energy projects that aim to strengthen America’s energy security.
  • EEI supports adjusting how the CAMT calculation factors in the costs for maintaining and repairing the U.S. energy grid to ensure investments in energy infrastructure are not unduly taxed.
More

Financial Review

The EEI Financial Review is an annual report on the financial performance and strategic direction of the electric power industry. The report includes discussions of: industry-level financial results, stock performance, dividends, credit ratings, rate reviews, construction activity, fuel sources, business segmentation, as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Electric Company Industry Financial Data and Analysis

EEI's Financial Analysis group tracks and analyzes a wide range of industry financial metrics covering the U.S. investor-owned electric companies. These companies include electric holding companies whose stocks are traded on major U.S. stock exchanges and other U.S. electric subsidiaries of non-utility or foreign companies.

Capital Expenditures

EEI Industry Capital Expenditures with Functional Detail (September 2024)

Quarterly Financial Updates

Credit Ratings: Summary | Data (Excel)

Dividends: Summary | Data (Excel)

Rate Review: Data (Excel)
   
Stock Performance: Summary | Data (Excel)

 

EEI Stock Index

The EEI Index measures total shareholder return for the 39 publicly traded U.S. investor-owned electric companies. The EEI Index is market cap-weighted and calculated on the final day of each quarter, covering both the year-to-date and trailing 12-month periods. The EEI Index is widely used in company proxy statements and industry benchmarking.

Members-Only Resources

Committees

Policy Committee on Finance
Determines and recommends policy in the areas of accounting and finance, rate regulation and competition, and taxes.

Accounting EAC
Has general supervision over the following areas: corporate accounting, property accounting and valuation, internal auditing, and accounting standards.

Staff Contacts

  • Kristen Siegele
    Senior Director, Government Affairs, Tax & Finance
    ksiegele@eei.org
    202-508-5774
  • Eric Yang
    Senior Financial Analyst
    eyang@eei.org
    202-508-5529
  • Mark Agnew
    Senior Director, Financial Analysis
    magnew@eei.org
    202-508-5049
  • Daniel Foy
    Director, Financial Analysis
    dfoy@eei.org
    202-508-5970