A common question is: how many times has the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind power production been extended since the original law was enacted in 1992.
The answer is a dirty dozen, which makes the federal lifeline to wind power 28 years old. That’s old age for a government subsidy, particularly one where the industry itself has long proclaimed its impending competitiveness.
“The U.S. wind industry has … demonstrated reliability and performance levels that make them very competitive,” stated a representative of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) back in 1986. [1] And Joe Romm a quarter-century later: “It is clear that solar and wind are competitive in many situations right now.” [2]
And so Milton Friedman’s warning that infant industries receiving government protection never seem to grow up has a stellar example.…
“… the President of the United States has proven quite a match for the anti-energy, anti-industrial, anti-sovereignty climate crusade.”
“Climate change? Nary a mention. Maybe this was one of the highlights of the 2020 State of the Nation.”
MasterResource has chronicled the energy-related speeches of Donald Trump on the campaign trail and as president.
Promises made, promises kept.
While his tariff policies have increased input costs for energy infrastructure (steel for pipelines, in particular), and split-the-baby biofuel subsidies stubbornly continue (what politician other than Ted Cruz has been able to say no?), there are many bright spots for the nation with the liberation of oil and gas exploration and production, pipeline projects, and other infrastructure needs.
And in the greatest pro-liberty energy campaign of all-time, President Trump has said YES to regulatory reform, NO to the anti-energy agenda of the Obama Administration, and HECK NO to global governance in the name of addressing the so-called climate change.…
Julian Simon (1932–1998) died 22 years ago this week, just short of his 66th birthday, too young by today’s standards. But Simon Lives! moments are common, with the most recent being the President of the United States telling the world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos:
…“[W]e must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse. They are the heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune-tellers — and I have them and you have them, and we all have them, and they want to see us do badly…. They predicted an overpopulation crisis in the 1960s, mass starvation in the ’70s, and an end of oil in the 1990s. These alarmists always demand the same thing: absolute power to dominate, transform, and control every aspect of our lives.”