Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

Funny, I was just thinking to myself a day or two ago that I hadn't seen anything from Robert Bryce attacking wind for a few weeks, when a new column of his appeared in the National Review, full of the familiar distortions and misrepresentations. It's good to know there are some things in life you can count on.

Mr. Bryce, who works for the fossil-fuel-funded Manhattan Institute, takes aim at the cost of wind jobs, which he reckons by dividing the estimated cost of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) by the number of jobs Navigant Consulting has found are at ...

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A Midwest Energy News story about a wind farm going up in Indiana gives a clear picture of how wind power creates jobs, and what's at stake as Congress delays acting to extend the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

The story, by Dan Ferber, looks at the Wildcat wind project near Elwood, Ind.  Mike Behringer of White Construction, an Indiana-based company that is handling the installation of the wind turbines, describes the work involved.  Says the article, "Access roads have to be built into farm fields; foundations have to be excavated. To hold up a single turbine, it takes 400 cubic yards of concrete and 36 tons of rebar—meaning the entire wind ...

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Sixty-five groups and individuals from Iowa, including a number of very prominent organizations such as the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, recently signed onto a joint letter to the state's Congressional delegation urging action on an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

The letter urged the legislators to "keep Iowans working and to continue promoting Iowa’s economic development, energy security and clean affordable electricity ... " It added, "Thousands of Iowans depend on the wind industry to support their families through construction, manufacturing, operations and maintenance jobs. In addition, land owner easement ...

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With Congress back in Washington, D.C., this week for a short session, the urgency of action on an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) was underscored by a new round of layoff announcements from wind companies.

Katana Summit, a wind turbine tower manufacturer that employs 214 in Columbus, Neb., and 79 in Ephrata, Wash., said it will close both plants if it cannot find a buyer for its operations, according to North American Wind Power.  A spokesperson for the company told the publication it has no orders for 2013 due to current uncertainty in the industry about a PTC extension: ""I hope we can find a buyer to keep these plants operating, but unless government ...

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Breitbart.com's Ron Shapiro wrote a lengthy post Tuesday about alleged misuse of the Section 1603 tax incentive for wind farms--an incentive program that was highly effective in saving wind industry jobs during the height of the recent economic meltdown. In fact:

The 1603 program saved 40,000 jobs. During the recession, project development and financing was difficult to obtain and costly. Wind investment stalled: some projects stopped in mid-construction, laying off construction workers and leaving wind towers and blades on the ground. 1603 allowed a wind farm developer to receive the value of the existing Production Tax Credit in the form of an up-front cash payment from the U.S. Treasury. This was critical: with the economy crashing, companies had no tax ...

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Each major wind farm in America creates nearly 1,100 jobs and can add tens of millions of dollars in new taxes and other benefits to the communities where they’re located, according to two new reports from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

A new 250-megawatt wind farm will create 1,079 jobs throughout the many steps of building that wind farm, according to the NRDC report “American Wind Farms: Breaking Down the Benefits from Planning to Production.”  The jobs analysis was commissioned by NRDC and performed by BW Research Partnership, according to the report. These are positions in manufacturing, construction engineering and management, among other areas.

But the ...

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Billionaire and Koch Industries CEO Charles G. Koch had an op-ed on corporate cronyism in Sunday's edition of the Wall Street Journal.  While the general notion of curbing inappropriate corporate influence in government seems laudable, Mr. Koch, who is in the oil & gas business, apparently could not resist taking a shot at wind power in the form of a wildly inflated statement about its cost.  In fact:

Wind-generated electricity is an especially good deal right now for consumers. Stable federal tax policy in the form of the PTC has helped keep electric rates affordable across the U.S.

For example, Alabama Power, a subsidiary of the Southern Company (a major electric utility), recently saved its customers money by signing a purchase agreement ...

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Des Moines attorney Sheila K. Tipton explains why an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) is important to Iowa in an op-ed published in yesterday's edition of the Sioux City (Iowa) Journal. The reason is best summed up in her opening sentence: "It's the economy, stupid."

Ms. Tipton adds, "No state stands to benefit more than does Iowa should the tax credit be extended. And no state economy will suffer more should Congress allow the credit to expire ... In my 30 years of practicing energy law, I have never witnessed growth by any type of energy like wind energy’s growth over ...

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Bill Bradbury, a member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and a former Oregon Secretary of State, set forth the facts about wind power's economic benefits, calling for an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) in an op-ed published Saturday in the Portland Oregonian.

Wind companies, Bradbury said, have invested $4.5 billion in Oregon's economy, supporting 3,000 jobs, providing tax revenue for school districts and public safety, and helping farmers and ranchers weather tough economic times.

Concluded Bradbury, "Suggesting that temporary, renewable energy policies should expire while allowing permanent fossil-fuel subsidies ...

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Wind energy provides lower-cost electricity that helps keep consumers’ rates low.

That helps explain criticism from competitors, who may have sunk costs into higher-priced sources of power. However, their claims that the wind energy production tax credit (PTC) is causing so-called “negative” prices are misguided, as this extremely rare phenomenon occurs in only 1 in 4,500 hours, would occur anyway even if there was no PTC, and actually shows the electricity market is working.

Wind energy is always going to enter the real-time electricity market as one of the lowest-cost sources of electricity.

Because wind energy has no fuel cost and ...

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