Wind Power Tax Credit Passage Made Easy: Buy Off Republicans

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Most importantly, you’d have to outspend this total for the top 20 Senate recipients for 2012:

1. McConnell, Mitch (R-Ky.) $264,700
2. Barrasso, John A (R-Wyo.) $232,800
3. Hatch, Orrin G (R-Utah) $225,400
4. Corker, Bob (R-Tenn.) $125,750
5. Heller, Dean (R-Nev.) $122,100
6. Wicker, Roger (R-Miss.) $104,166
7. Brown, Scott (R-Mass.) $93,000
8. Cornyn, John (R-Texas) $81,900
9. Landrieu, Mary L (D-La.) $79,000
10. Inhofe, James M (R-Okla.) $70,850
11. Baucus, Max (D-Mont.) $54,000
12. Lugar, Richard G (R-Ind.) $43,700
13. Vitter, David (R-La.) $43,400
14. Manchin, Joe (D-W.V.) $40,250
15. Rubio, Marco (R-Fla.) $36,750
16. Snowe, Olympia (R-Maine) $36,500
17. Nelson, Ben (D-Neb.) $35,900
18. Udall, Mark (D-Colo.) $30,200
19. Menendez, Robert (D-N.J.) $25,900
20. McCaskill, Claire (D-M0.) $25,208

Of course this is not the full picture. This is just the oil industry. Coal industry funding must be matched too, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as the lobbying arm of the fossil industry.

Because of the Senate cheating on the 60-vote cloture, the most focus should be on repurchasing these following new candidates running for Senate before they get in there. The oil and gas industry has pumped them full already for their 2012 run. The renewable energy industry must meet or beat these “contribution” amounts:

Dewhurst, David H (R-Texas) $415,600
Berg, Rick (R-N.D.) $237,450
Rehberg, Denny (R-Mont.) $231,416
Cruz, Ted (R-Texas) $180,550
Allen, George (R-Va.) $90,300
Jones, Elizabeth Ames (R-Texas) $84,325
Mandel, Josh (R-Ohio) $80,000
Wilson, Heather A (R-N.M.) $69,050
Leppert, Thomas C (R-Texas) $59,150
Lingle, Linda (R-Hawaii) $54,000

image via Shutterstock

Buying all the Republicans—and several Democrats such as new “Democratic” Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia—will be a much bigger hit to a nascent industry’s bottom line than it is for the fossil industry, because the fossil industry is currently the richest industry on the planet.

Most Democrats get their funding from the nonprofit environmental groups that are already dedicated to cutting pollution, so you won’t have to spend a penny on them. When they did hold the 60-vote supermajority for several months in 2009 they passed a PTC extension that has shot the U.S. ahead of Germany in wind development for the last three years (China has since moved to the front).

And you can leave Republican Susan Collins off the list. The last remaining clean-energy-supporting senator from Maine, which has more renewable energy than California, Collins has consistently voted with the Democrats for sensible climate legislation. And some heavily wind powered states are finally getting some leverage, as at least their Republican House members in states like 20 percent wind-powered Iowa finally notice the wind industry.

And don’t worry about foreign bribes being illegal. The U.S. Republican-selected Supreme Court has taken care of that already. Under Citizens United, unlimited amounts of any and all corporate funding of congressional races is not only perfectly legal, but is actually encouraged in our elections now.

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Posted on April 24th, 2012 · Comment ↓

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Posted in Editor's Pick, Featured, Renewable Energy, Wind Power

  • Jctaylor405

    Susan, I am with you in spirit. But the amounts listed above fall far short of expressing the economic grip that the fossil fuel industry has over American public policy. That grip is loosening as the reality of global warming sets in (for a second time). Whatever will become of the PTC? We will see. But it is hard to imagine the Republicans missing the obvious: clean, renewable energy is a much bigger economic engine than oil, coal and gas.

  • G.I. G

    As a college student in Colorado currently researching Senator Mark Udall’s stance on energy issues, I feel obligated to comment and say that you would NOT need to buy out-buy his $30,200 campaigns from oil interests for two reasons:

    1. He is ALREADY one of the biggest supporters pushing for the renewal of the PTC
    2. He already has been “bought away” from oil interests. His top campaign contributor is the League of Conservation voters, who at $69,129 (opensecrets.org) already more than doubles the campaign contributions coming from oil.

    So it is absolutely unnecessary to include Udall in the total needed to buy-off. These reasons doesn’t even touch on his past voting record (pro-renewables) or his other campaign contributions from pro-renewable/pro-environment interests. This lack of oversight when writing this article makes me question the quality of research put into it and, inherently, the credibility of the whole thing. This seems to be written based on emotion and accusation more than facts and an understanding of the legislative process.