A CALL TO ACTION FROM OUR NEW HAMPSHIRE FRIENDS

WIND ALERT - Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) - Can you spare 2 minutes to help us?

Below is an urgent letter drafted by Lisa Linowes of Windaction.org to be sent as one national letter.  The goal is to gather as many signatures as possible THIS WEEKEND (as in today!) for submission to key legislators as soon as possible. 

To sign onto this letter, all you have to do is reply to this email -or- send an email to llerner01@comcast.net with your:

Name, City, State, Zip

Please do this now.  Thanks to Lisa for once again coordinating this.  We have done this several times before and had hundreds of New England folks sign on as well as thousands from other states.  Let’s do it again and even better than the last time.  Feel free to forward this information on to family, friends and neighbors asking them to participate in this effort.    Thank you!  - Lori Lerner

PTC Letter

Dear :

We, the undersigned, join many thousands of U.S. taxpayers and ratepayers nationwide in urging you and your colleagues to oppose any effort by Congress to reinstate the Production Tax Credit (‘PTC’) for Wind Energy.

This time last year, Congress awarded the wind industry with a 1-year, $6.4 billion extension of the PTC. This was preceded by a $12 billion dollar extension passed in January 2013 and nearly $13 billion in direct cash outlays issued under the Section 1603 grant program for wind projects placed in service by the end of 2012. That’s over $30 billion in committed taxpayer funds in a few short years. Despite this, the wind industry remains economically unviable and is again demanding billions more.

While public policy has helped the emerging renewables market, it is now evident that the 23-year old subsidy has outlived its usefulness and is, in fact, harming the taxpayers and our competitive energy markets.

1.      The wind PTC is uneconomical policy for reducing CO2 emissions and one of the most expensive approaches to complying with the administration’s Clean Power Plan.

2.      The pre-tax value of the wind PTC (3.5¢/kWh) equals, or exceeds the wholesale price of power in much of the country. The size of the subsidy relative to wholesale prices is distorting competitive wholesale energy markets and harming the financial integrity of other, more reliable generation.

3.      The wind PTC pays renewable generators the same price for placing a kilowatt-hour of energy regardless of location or time of day and seasonal demand requirements thereby encouraging renewable generation to be built in the wrong places and that operates when least needed.

Today, hundreds of thousands of acres across the United States have been transformed into sprawling electric generating facilities strung together with expansive transmission systems. Thousands of 500+ foot tall spinning towers consume our open spaces and threaten people and wildlife in their way.

No traditional source of electric generation has ever received an open-ended, unlimited subsidy comparable to the PTC for every kilowatt hour of energy put on the grid. The wind industry insists the wind PTC is an effective tool to keep electricity rates low. In fact, it is nothing more than a cost imposed on all taxpayers in order to accommodate development of a politically well-connected, high-priced, low-value resource that cannot meet our electric capacity needs and has proven a costly option for reducing emissions.