Bonner Cohen of the National Center for Public Policy Research devotes a Human Events column to the looming debate over extending wind power subsidies.
With Congress returning from its August recess, proponents of extending a federal subsidy to the wind-energy industry—the production tax credit (PTC)—say they plan to leave no stone unturned in their efforts to continue receiving favorable treatment under the tax code.
Navigating an abbreviated congressional calendar, including a midterm election in early November and a “lame-duck” session sometime thereafter, will be challenging for both friends and foes of the PTC. Together with other tax breaks for an assortment of industries, the wind PTC expired at the end of 2013. In the past, these tax breaks have been retroactively extended in legislative packages known as “tax extenders,” but growing opposition to the PTC has clouded the future of the wind industry’s subsidy.
Opposition to extending the PTC is stronger in the Republican-controlled House than in the Democrat-controlled Senate. With this in mind, and fearing the Senate may change hands as a result of the midterm elections, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) prefers congressional action on the subsidy during this session of Congress. In contrast, opponents of the subsidy have every incentive to put off a vote until 2015 when their hand may be stronger.
Party affiliation is not necessarily an indication of how a member will vote. Democrats overwhelmingly support the PTC and other green-energy program, and so do some Republicans. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) is an ardent supporter of the wind industry, vowing to fight all efforts to let the subsidy expiration remain in force. And in both the House and Senate, some Republicans from “high-wind” areas of the Great Plains and Inter-Mountain West back the PTC. Some have received campaign contributions from AWEA.
