AWEA Blog - Wind energy: Bipartisanship welcome on PTC

"In an unusual yet welcome show of bipartisanship, Republicans and
Democrats have teamed together to convince Congress to maintain an
important tax credit. Count Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback [R] among
Republicans on the right side of the move to push for extension of a
federal wind energy production tax credit needed to protect tens of
thousands of jobs in the industry."

That's the word from a recent Garden City (Kan.) Telegram editorial
endorsing the Production Tax Credit (PTC).

The Sunflower State has been a major beneficiary of the U.S. wind
industry's growth.Currently, it ranks ninth in installed wind capacity,
with enough wind farms in place to power the equivalent of 630,000
homes, and more on the way.Kansas wind projects pay some $3.8 million a
year to farmers and other landowners, and $3.7 million in property
taxes--even though only a fraction of one percent of the state's
enormous wind potential has been developed.

Adds the Telegram editorial, "Some of Brownback's fellow GOP
conservatives --- including First District U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp,
whose own district holds great wind potential --- fiercely oppose the
tax credit.As good wind-energy jobs disappear before our eyes, Huelskamp
and others still see the tax credit as wasteful spending --- even though
the federal government has subsidized fossil fuel-based energy
production for more than a century."

The PTC is an incentive that reduces taxes on the operators of wind
farms and leaves more of the money they earn from electricity sales in
private hands, helping to attract private investment not only in wind
projects, but in component manufacturers, suppliers, trucking companies
and more.The PTC provides an income tax credit of 2.2 cents per
kilowatt-hour for the first 10 years of electricity production from
utility-scale wind turbines. It is set to expire on Dec. 31 unless
Congress extends it first. A recent study by Navigant Consulting found
that extending the Production Tax Credit will allow the industry to grow
to 100,000 jobs in just four years, while an expiration would kill
37,000 jobs within a year.

A House bill seeking to extend the PTC has 119 cosponsors, including 25
Republicans, while a similar Senate bill is cosponsored by seven
Senators, including three Republicans.PTC extension efforts have
received the endorsement of a broad coalition of more than 370 members,
including the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Farm
Bureau Federation, and the Western Governors' Association. A PTC
extension also has the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the
National Governors Association, and the bipartisan Governors' Wind
Energy Coalition, which includes 23 Republican and Democratic Governors
from across the U.S.A PTC extension has been endorsed by a number of
newspapers across the country, including the Des Moines Register, the
Denver Post, the Daily Oklahoman, the Toledo Blade, the Houston
Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the
Chicago Sun-Times, and The New York Times.


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