HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??????? - House passes bill with wind PTC extension included
North American Windpower - Michael Bates - December 20, 2019
The House passed a tax extenders package this week that includes a one-year extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for wind but failed to move forward an investment tax credit (ITC) provision for offshore wind power.
The House passed a tax extenders package this week that includes a one-year extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for wind but failed to move forward an investment tax credit (ITC) provision for offshore wind power.
The PTC is currently set to be eliminated. Wind projects that begin construction on or before Dec. 31, 2019, and are placed into service by the end of 2021 are eligible, but the PTC will phase out completely after that.
The extenders bill, however, would extend the tax credit at a 40% reduction of the full PTC value ($0.025/kWh) for projects that start construction in 2020.
The extenders package is expected to be signed into law by the end of the week.
Missing from the legislation is any type of tax credit for offshore wind projects. It was hoped that Congress would add a five-year extension of the 30% investment tax credit (ITC) to the year-end extenders bill, but that provision did not make it into the legislation.
“If the investment tax credit for offshore wind is added in the final federal budget, Congress will unleash a trillion dollars of investment in a new American industry,” said Liz Burdock, CEO and president of the Business Network for Offshore Wind.
http://www.windaction.org/posts/50708-house-passes-bill-with-wind-p...
November 2019:
No, Congress will not extend the PTC
In another month, the wind PTC will finally expire after twenty-seven years. Taxpayers will still be on the hook for billions more in PTCs through the next decade but the burden should not increase. In that time, the wind industry has grown significantly reaching over 100,000 MW and now mainstreamed into the US electricity market. Big Wind is no longer a nascent industry, but one that must stand on its own, whether it's ready or not.
http://www.windaction.org/posts/50603-no-congress-will-not-extend-t...
Back in March 2019:
Wind PTC Phaseout - Politicians' Amnesia Beginning to Set In
“As part of our commitment to dealing with the realities of climate, it’s one of our priorities,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Finance Committee, told E&E News yesterday. “So, yes, we are looking at the renewable credits, their expiration dates, whether we can make them longer and more effective.”....................
Lawmakers extended the renewable credits, known as the wind production tax credit (PTC) and the solar investment tax credit (ITC), at the end of 2015 as part of a broader deal that ended the decadeslong crude oil export ban.
That deal called for a five-year extension, with a phaseout of their worth until they sunset. As it currently stands, the wind incentive will taper out by the end of 2019, while the solar credit will slope down by 2022.
Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was caught off guard when informed of Cardin’s remarks yesterday.
“I don’t think I could in good conscience join that effort, not because I changed my mind on wind energy, but we’ve pleaded with so many opponents, ‘Just let us phase it out. And we can do it in five years,’” Grassley told E&E News. “And we made that decision in 2015. I think it would be wrong for me to go back on my word.”......................
“The wind industry agreed to an orderly phaseout of the production tax credit, which has created a record number of American wind power jobs and kept U.S. factories open,” said Bree Raum, AWEA’s vice president of federal affairs.
“We aren’t actively asking for an extension to our PTC and favor federal energy policies that would help renovate and modernize our aging power transmission lines, and allow all technologies to compete to provide carbon emissions reductions at the lowest cost to consumers,” she added.
http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/wind-ptc-phaseout-polit...
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Comment
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Comment by Long Islander on December 22, 2019 at 10:31pm
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In other, somewhat less, bad news, the deal also includes a one-year extension of the wind PTC. The PTC is a direct handout to wind electricity generators for every kilowatt of electricity produced, which they collect over 10 years. Another “temporary” subsidy that has never been allowed to die, the PTC has hung around since 1992. In 2015, a grand bargain was reached on a multi-year extension of the PTC in exchange for a phase-down of the value of the subsidy. At the time, and for many years since, we were assured by the wind industry that their technology was mature and ready to compete on a level playing field. For years now the media has been filled with assertions that wind and solar power generation are so competitive they are actually cheaper than their conventional competitors!
But as the phase down deadline has drawn closer, the tune predictably changed. Suddenly this supposedly super-competitive generation source cannot survive without continued subsidies. Under the current phase-down plan, the PTC alone was already expected to cost almost $33 billion over the 10 years to 2028, with taxpayers continuing to be on the hook well into the 2030’s. The additional year included in the extenders deal only adds to this bill, though we can at least be relieved that the extension is only for one year. The question remains for the wind industry, when will it ever be enough.
https://www.americanenergyalliance.org/2019/12/on-energy-taxpayers-...
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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