Let the PTC Expire: Letter and Signatories (100+ groups and counting)

“It is precisely the fact that the market does not respect vested interests that makes the people concerned ask for government interference.”

– Ludwig von Mises, Human Action (1940), p. 334 [4th Edition, 1966, p. 337].

Government goes to those who show up. The wind industry got there first (concentrated benefits, diffused costs). But the pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer, pro-freedom movement has staged an impressive counter attack against government-dependent cronyism. Energy politics dates from the mid-nineteenth century in the United States–but never has more than one hundred pro-liberty groups spoken with one voice before.

Will the wind Production Tax Credit expire as scheduled at the end of this year? The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) hopes not. Why? Because continued expansion depends on the timing of this huge subsidy (see this graph by the editors of Real Clear Energy).

Letter and Signatories

Here is the November 4, 2013, letter to Congress from more than 100 signatories, big and small, city and grassroots, energy related and not. More signatories may add to this list.

Dear Senators and Representatives:

 

The principal federal support for the wind energy industry is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. The undersigned organizations and the millions of Americans we represent stand opposed to extending the production tax credit (PTC).

The wind industry has very little to show after 20 years of preferential tax treatment; it remains woefully dependent on this federal support. Yet despite this consistent under-performance, Congress has repeatedly voted to extend the PTC, usually in 1- or 2-year increments. This past year, Congress dramatically expanded the credit in addition to extending it.

This year, Congress should break from the past and allow the wind PTC to expire as scheduled, once and for all. Americans deserve energy solutions that can make it on their own in the marketplace—not ones that need to be propped up by government indefinitely.

Sincerely,