Conservatives: Let Wind Power Tax Credit Die

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The mention of environmental benefits is interesting, since the free market can often fail to capture both such costs and benefits. That’s one of the premises behind a carbon tax, which even some conservative economists favor, yet American For Prosperity says on its website that it is “opposed to a carbon tax in any form.”

siemens iowa midamerican wind power

President Obama visits Siemens plant in Fort Madison, Iowa, April 2010. (image via Siemens)

Just before Congress took its August recess, the Senate Finance Committee voted — with the support of Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley and Kansas Republican Pat Roberts — to retain the wind PTC as part of a package of tax breaks. Most observers think the chances of further action on the PTC before the election are slim, leaving the matter up to a lame duck Congress. President Obama strongly supports the PTC. The wind industry argues that jobs are already being lost as a result of the lack of certainty about the PTC, and that allowing it to expire will cost the nation tens of thousands of jobs.

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Posted on September 9th, 2012 · Comment ↓

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

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Lester/100001046509730 Alex Lester

    Well the credit does need to be phased out over some number of years. The rich gain from these credits and if we are to have more competitive rates these types of preferances need to go.

  • disqus_HUVXCgD9Sw

    Please note the conspicuous absence of any mention of tax preferences that currently favor the oil companies – which I think get something like 30 billion a year

    • Pete Danko

      Indeed! As the story states: “The letter targeting the wind power tax credit doesn’t address the question of subsidies for oil or other fossil fuels production – neither present-day subsidies, nor, perhaps more importantly, the substantial subsidies that helped build the fossil fuels industries and give them a dominant position in today’s energy landscape.”
      Thanks for your note!
      Pete

  • Alan Morford

    Vermont gets direct grant money supporting Maple Syrup farms – in the Farm Bill. Soooo, wind “farming”, as some call it these days, isn’t worth of a break on taxes BUT Maple Syrup is important enough to get the money straight up. WOW – lobbying really thrives tiny bits of information used without any context.

  • Patrick Moctezuma

    “…deplorable practice of using the tax code to favor certain groups over others.” That’s EXACTLY what the federal government should use the tax code for. That’s it’s job! The only other alternative in doing its job to guide which industries will benefit America the most, moving forward, is outright prohibition (or the converse- a legal obligation to do something). The entire argument is a complete hypocrisy and propaganda- especially as it comes from billionaires who have benefited so mightily from my tax dollars subsidizing the oil industry in various ways.

    These Tea Party wing-nuts no absolutely nothing about governance or public policy, and everything about aping the message that the Koch Brothers want broadcast into the blogosphere.