Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

BP Alternative Energy CEO Katrina Landis, pointing to the wind power industry's success in reducing costs and the need for business certainty going forward, yesterday urged that the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) be extended beyond its scheduled expiration at the end of this year.

Landis made her remarks in an interview with Bloomberg News at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit in New York City.  A separate interview with Bloomberg Television is also available.

Landis called the PTC "a really compelling example of a technology and an incentive program that's ...

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The American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) Steven F. Hayward had a blog post recently discussing the fact that in recent years, federal incentives for clean energy have risen relative to those for fossil fuels.

Interestingly, Mr. Hayward states that incentives are critical to clean energy sources like wind and solar power, but that the fossil fuels industries would be little affected if their subsidies were withdrawn.  This, of course, begs the question of why the latter are still in place, and why the oil and gas industries defend them so energetically.

Whatever the reason for that might be, as we have pointed out here on a number of occasions, incentives should be viewed in a historical context. Government funding support has helped all of our domestic energy ...

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Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (R) and U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R) yesterday called in a joint Wichita Eagle op-ed for extension of wind power's primary incentive, the federal wind energy production tax credit (PTC).

Noting that Kansas's wind resource is the second largest of any state, the two wrote, "If we expect the wind energy industry to provide for our country’s future energy needs and make long-term investments in their businesses, Congress must reauthorize the wind production tax credit (PTC) that expires this year. By extending the wind PTC, Congress will allow the wind ...

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Wind energy industry members and advocates expressed relief and thanks Thursday when Wisconsin’s new wind farm siting rules, originally scheduled to take effect a year ago, became law.

The latest news came after a bill to repeal the rules was sent back to committee last week and subsequently was not further acted on in the final days of the legislative session. Actions by Wisconsin-based member companies and individuals in the state were critical to making sure that the state legislature did not act to permanently suspend the rules in the waning days of the session.

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U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) yesterday introduced a bill that would provide a two-year extension of the wind energy production tax credit (PTC) scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

The bipartisan proposal would prevent a lapse in the credit.  In a news release, the Senators said they hope to have the extension passed as quickly as possible in order to provide tax certainty for the renewable energy sector.

“Tax reform efforts might modify or address this incentive in the near future, but the jobs and opportunities provided by wind energy should not be abandoned in the meantime.  And limiting the bill’s impact on ...

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The Houston Chronicle yesterday became the latest in a steadily growing number of newspapers to endorse an extension of wind power's primary incentive, the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

The Chronicle's endorsement was noteworthy for its specifics on the growth of the wind power industry in Texas and elsewhere: "Wind now generates about 3 percent of the nation's electricity and 7 percent of the electricity used in Texas. And the growth curve ahead is beyond promising, with renewable energy production expected to grow by 252 percent in the next two decades.

"The major question mark standing between the wind industry and that ...

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The Washington Times was in high dudgeon yesterday, lashing out at a series of federal programs aimed at promoting clean energy sources such as wind and solar power.  What got lost in all the rhetorical thud and blunder was the enormous progress the U.S. wind power industry has made over the past decade in creating new American manufacturing jobs--many of which are currently at risk due to Congressional inaction on an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC)--and helping to bolster an uneven economy.

It's worth noting that, on the very same day that the Times was ripping wind power from inside the Beltway,

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The Wall Street Journal weighs in with an editorial today criticizing Senate votes on a variety of energy proposals during yesterday's debate on a major transportation bill in Congress. It all sounds pretty good, but in the real world, things are seldom as simple as they seem. What's overlooked here?

First and foremost, as an emerging industry that is growing rapidly and providing an increasing number of new manufacturing jobs, wind energy needs a stable, predictable tax policy environment to flourish. This point was made more generally, as it happens, in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed (see WSJ op-ed: 'Want Growth? Try Stable Tax Policy', January 5, 2012). Stability has been sorely lacking ...

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The Nashville Tennessean carried an op-ed Sunday from Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, calling for an extension of the wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) to "create domestic jobs, provide clean, safe energy, and lower monthly bills."

Regarding jobs, Smith wrote, "More than 400 facilities in 43 states are involved in wind power manufacturing — a 12-fold increase over the past six years. As the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service notes, 'Wind turbine manufacturing is at the core of the multifaceted wind power industry. Because of the use of castings, forgings, and machining, turbine manufacturing is a significant contributor to U.S. heavy manufacturing.' This is an American success story, with the PTC for wind driving ...

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The new Wind Energy Foundation, which describes itself formally as "a 501c3 dedicated to raising public awareness of wind as a clean and reliable source of domestic energy through communication, research and education," has opened a Facebook page, and we have it on good authority that a website will be launched today. Stop by, check out the Facebook page, and be sure to click "Like" if you like wind power and believe clean energy should be part of our future.

The Foundation is headed by Executive Director Darlene Snow, who was appointed several months ago. As she said then, ...

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