Green energy barons had a good run in the Obama era, but Capitol Hill conservatives are giving these charlatans their first stern challenge in the fresh Congress in the form of the PTC Elimination Act, introduced by Rep. Kenny E. Marchant (R-Texas).
“If we want to build a healthier American economy, Congress must get rid of the dead weight in the tax code that is limiting our country’s potential. That’s why I have introduced legislation to eliminate the manufacturing tax credit,” Marchant said in an April 22 statement.
“Since its inception in 1992, the PTC has grown from a temporary boost for energy innovation to a massive dedicated support for the now multibillion-dollar wind industry,” he said. “In fact, because the credit pays applicants for 10 years of energy produced, Americans are now required to pay at least $6.4 billion over the next decade.”
The Texas congressman takes a rational approach to the issue and tries to gradually reduce the operate of wind energy.
“A fully mature wind industry should no longer be spoon-fed by taxpayers. Even the industry’s most important lobbying organization acknowledges that wind is a major part of the market and has publicly supported the eventual phase-out of PTCs,” he said.
Others in the wind industry want to make their government benefits indefinite, like feudal law. Wind feudalism advocates have a friend in President Barack Obama and the Republican leadership, making it significant that conservatives are showing up at all.
The last session of Congress was not kind to House conservatives. By the time former Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his June primary to a libertarian college professor, House GOP leaders were already forming a legislative coalition with House Democrats to advance the president’s agenda.
When it came time to pass the Cromnibus funding bill on December 11, instead of negotiating with conservatives or waiting for Republicans to take over the Senate in three weeks, Speaker John A. Boehner (Republican of Ohio) teamed up with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat of California) to get the job done.
Because 67 Republicans voted against the Cromnibus bill, Pelosi loaned Boehner 57 Democrats to pass the bill by a vote of 219 to 206. Among the goodies Republican leaders included in the Dec. 11 Cromnibus federal funding bill was an extension of the wind production tax credit through the end of calendar year 2014. The credits expired at the end of 2013.
If Republicans had not passed the Wind PTC Act of 2014, wind energy companies would have been forced to face the realities of the free market, and wind energy would never have had a chance of survival.
Wind power is supposed to be basic. The wind blows, the turbine spins, and the electricity spews out spotless and protected. In reality, it’s anything but basic.
If there’s no wind, there’s no power. That part is basic. But if your grid is dependent on wind power that doesn’t come in, your grid goes back to the same coal plant that the wind was supposed to replace. Instead of replacing coal or other fossil fuel plants, these plants need to be maintained and act as backups for the fickle wind.
Adam Smith tells us that it is thanks to the baker’s greed that we have bread.
The problem with wind is that without a handout from the Treasury, there are no greedy bakers willing to invest in and operate wind turbines. Instead of helping the fledgling industry, wind tax breaks work like honey, tricking people and capital into a trap — keeping them away from real businesses.
Of course, no one knows more about interpreting the wind than a politician.
Capitol Hill conservatives have a chance to recapture the momentum of the 2014 campaign that gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress. If conservatives unite to wipe the wind tax credit off the books, we will learn whether the 2014 campaign rhetoric was a call to action or just bags of wind.
