After all the drama in this end-of-year self-generated fiscal crisis, Congressional negotiators struck a deal on the omnibus spending and tax extender bills. In a nutshell – the democrats won, the republicans caved and the rest of us were screwed – unless, of course, you’re in big wind’s camp. In that case, you’re probably stunned at how much Congress is willing to give of taxpayer money so it can go home for the holidays.
Meaningless Gesture
After two weeks of bluster from both sides claiming the renewable tax credits posed the greatest obstacle to reaching agreement, we now know there was no debate at all. The wind industry secured its prized 2-year, $10 billion extension promised by the Senate Finance Committee with no questions asked. To appease the thousands of taxpayers who pleaded for the wind PTC to end, the backroom, spineless negotiators added phase-out language that would lower the credit in annual 20% increments after 2016.…
A stand-alone floor vote on the wind production tax credit would have put an end to its nonsense, but Congress prefers instead to coddle this costly giveaway safely in the corpulent folds of other, must-pass extender language.
It’s December. The wind production tax credit (PTC) has been expired for nearly a year, and, no surprise, Big Wind and its friends in Congress are again pressing for another extension.
Our representatives know that the PTC is wildly unpopular. They’ve heard all the arguments, year-after-year: How that 23-year old subsidy has outlived its usefulness and is, in fact, harming taxpayers and our competitive energy markets. A stand-alone floor vote on the PTC would have put an end to its nonsense, but Congress preferred instead to coddle this costly giveaway safely in the corpulent folds of other, must-pass extender language.…
“Offshore wind is essentially a government-made market that would not exist in the U.S. but for a massive intervention from Washington and an ‘at-any-cost’ mentality at the state level. Of the alleged 15,650 MW of offshore wind in DOE’s pipeline, a very small fraction represents projects proffered by private entities.”
It’s official. At a White House summit last month, the Obama administration publicly backed its new government program – offshore wind. With America’s first offshore project now under construction, and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) latest analysis showing 21 projects totaling 15,650 megawatts in the works, the political boost could trigger a development boom.
But don’t count on it. The already uneconomic on land is only worse off in the waters.
Washington’s Wishful Thinking
Washington’s support for wind power is ideological, steeped in wishful thinking about what could be built, both on- and off- shore.…