Wind Energy

Wind power: PTC extension part of ‘all of above’ policy

In an interview Friday on the "Line on Agriculture" program of AgInfo.net, Mr. Reichert commented, "Most of the Republicans I talk to are in favor of all of the above and there are a lot of them who support a tax credit over … versus the other methods that have been used to support outside entities and whatever product they might be trying to produce."

The PTC, he added, " … isn’t a grant, it’s not a stimulus package, it’s not giving taxpayers’ dollars directly to picking winners or losers, this is a tax credit where a business has to show that they are actually producing a product and then they get the credit."

The credit was enacted in 1992, Mr. Reichert noted, and has been extended several times in the past, under both Republican and Democratic Administrations.

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 turbines. It is set to expire on Dec. 31 unless Congress extends it first.

The House bill sponsored by Mr. Reichert and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) seeking to extend the PTC has 97 cosponsors, including 21 Republicans, while a Senate bill to extend it was introduced March 15 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, the Edison Electric Institute, 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 Houston Chronicle, The New York Times, the Denver Post, and the Daily Oklahoman.

Tom Gray, www.awea.org/blog