Assessing the Production Tax Credit
Just what you always wanted to know about… The intro:
The Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy is set to expire at the end of this year. In March the Senate failed to pass Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-MI) measure that would have extended the PTC (and other renewables tax credits), while Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) bill and a bipartisan House bill are still pending. This morning, Politico reported on the ongoing fight that many Democrats and some Republicans are making to renew the PTC
The present post will summarize the history of the PTC. We will see that despite the billions in tax advantages the wind industry has received over the decades, it hasn’t delivered anywhere near the promises of its proponents. If Congress wants to stimulate job creation and energy production through tax policy, it should avoid picking winners and losers, and instead apply a uniform tax code with as low a rate as possible to all energy sources.
I was at an ‘alternative energy’ conference a while back. I got the keynote speaker to admit that if it wasn’t for government subsidies & mandates, wind & solar markets wouldn’t exist. This is while he was trying to tell us about all these ‘free market green initiatives.’ Cognitive dissonance much?