USA - Wind Energy Production Tax Credit approved in South Dakota

With the approval of the $700 billion bailout out plan comes an extension of the Wind Energy Production Tax Credit, which is important for wind farms here in South Dakota.

The credit can be claimed by companies owning and operating a wind farm. A South Dakota senator has pushed for the measure for quite some time and now it finally has gotten the green light.

Wind energy is one of the cleanest ways to produce power, which is why South Dakota senator John Thune has been pushing for lawmakers to expand the Wind Energy Production Tax Credit.

"The wind energy industry is on the cusp of really taking off. It has been one of the few areas in our energy where one, you've got an abundance here at home so it addresses the issue of energy independence but it's also clean energy, there's no carbon emitted from wind energy," says Thune.

Thune has been trying to get the house to vote on the tax credit for a while. Now that the credit is in place, Thune says that could mean booming business for our area.

"Having this production tax credit in place will allow investment in this industry to continue," says Thune.

The tax credit will expire at the end of this year but Thune says extending it now was an important for the people of South Dakota.

"It's critical to South Dakota for job creation and our growing extension so that was a good addition and one that drew some votes in the house that otherwise wouldn't have been there. If congress had not extended it, a lot of that investment would have gone away and that would of mean a lot of South Dakota jobs and a lot of investment here in South Dakota," says Thune.