PTC GETS INDEXED UPWARD: MORE $$$ FOR WIND THIEVES

IRS move means more tax dollars for wind power

The Internal Revenue Service adjusted the Wind Production Tax Credit for inflation this week — an increase that will cost taxpayers $545 million dollars, according to the Institute for Energy Research.

“In one fell swoop, the IRS gave wind energy more than twice the amount President Obama wants for his proposed energy security trust in a single year,” said IER senior vice president Daniel Kish.

The IRS adjusted the tax credit for wind power upward from 2.2 cents to 2.3 cents, a percentage increase higher than the latest inflation numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the last twelve months up to February 2013.

“Not only has the wind lobby succeeded in pushing Congress to award the industry another ten years of taxpayer funded subsidies — totaling $12 billion — but now they have the IRS forcing taxpayers to pay even more to prop up energy they can’t use and don’t need,” Kish added.

According to IER, the IRS inflation adjustment for wind power funds could have been used to extend other federal programs that are seeing cuts due to the sequester. For example, programs to vaccinate children could have been extended for more than 60 years. Nutritional assistance for seniors could have been extended for more than 13 years, and funding for disabled children could have been extended another 11 months.

“[T]he White House continues to play sequester games and cancel White House tours, which cost $3,848,000 a year,” Kish said. “Essentially, the cost of today’s action by the IRS could have paid for 130 years of White House tours.”

However, Ellen Carey, media relations manager at the American Wind Energy Association, told Platts that the inflation adjustment has been done since Congress created the wind tax credit.

“It’s a nondiscretionary adjustment based on inflation — a simple formality,” said Carey.

The wind PTC was extended through 2013 as part of the “fiscal cliff” deal to avoid automatic tax increases and spending cuts.

“Extending the wind Production Tax Credit is a long-overdue dose of certainty for manufacturers who employ more than 5,000 Coloradans and 60,000 workers across America,” said Colorado Democrat Sen. Mark Udall, said in support of extending the tax credit.

The federal Wind Production Tax Credit was implemented in 1992 to get the wind industry on its feet, and has since been renewed seven times. The Joint Committee on Taxation reported that a one-year extension of the wind PTC alone would cost $12.1 billion.







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Comment by Brad Blake on April 7, 2013 at 7:39pm

Of course we all knew that PTC is indexed to increase a tenth of a cent EVERY YEAR!  Doesn't seem like much to go from 2.2 to 2.3 cents per kwh but it adds a lot of money due to volume.  Take the production of Record Hill Wind as an example.  Of course, they opted to receive $33.7 million ARRA Section 1603 grant inlieu of the PTC, a smart move considering how long it would take to earn that money from PTC.  Record Hill generated a paltry 110,099 MWH in 2012.  At $22 per MWH PTC, they would have earned $2,422,178 and if they were to produce the same at $23 per MWH PTC, they would earn $2,532,277.  An increase of $110,099.  That is chump change compared to the Section 1603 grant.  Nevertheless, that kind of increase every year for a similar wind project that missed out on the Section 1603 is like rewarding a mediocre utility infielder with an increase every year in baseball even thoug it is not deserved.  We, as a country cannot afford these constant increases in subsidies for lousy production any more than we can afford to keep paying sky high ticket prices to see some baseball player strike out more than he gets a hit.

Comment by Brad Blake on April 7, 2013 at 7:20pm

A personal anecdote regarding jobs for wind power.  When I was involved in opposing the Rollins project in Lincoln Lakes, I angered my cousin's husband to the point that I was told I was no longer welcome in their home.  He is a small time contarctor with a bunch of heavy equipment and he owns some gravel pits.  He was angry at my opposition because he thought he would get some work from First Wind.  Well, Sargent did all the construction and they destroyed even more of the ridges by blasting for rock fill and digging their own gravel pits.  No work for Cousin in law Ron!

He is now angry about wind power development and because he has a hunting camp in Grand Falls Twshp, he got really upset about the Passadumkeag wind project.  He has grudgingly said I was right.

Comment by Long Islander on April 7, 2013 at 7:01pm

The reality of wind power in Maine is it creates short term construction jobs as well as short term related jobs such as that of the Portland lawyer who is paid to say that fishermen on Maine's pristine lakes care not for the scenery, but only the fish. Or jobs for so called biologists who will make pronouncements at the Vinalhaven wind site that "there are no bats on Vinalhaven".

 

We cannot dispute these jobs. They are real, but temporary.

 

NRCM and other wind cheerleaders have stepped way out of their bailiwicks and weighed in on job creation. You'll hear them talk about the 300 Maine companies that have benefited from wind projects. What they don't tell you is some of those they've counted have done little more than sell a few boxes of nails. No matter how trivial they count them. Another thing they will not tell you is that 300 companies, with all due respect, represent but a tiny fraction of Maine's 34,942 firms according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

http://www.census.gov/econ/susb/

 

Moreover, there is no mention about the strain that wind power's inevitable higher electricity rates place on all 34,942 firms. Without question, our high electricity rates are a MAJOR obstacle to our existing businesses and attracting new businesses. So while some of the largest companies can afford to dispatch their workers complete with construction vests to hearings to testify for wind projects (and they exit in mass at 4PM), these are but a vocal minority. The vast majority of Maine businesses will be affected very adversely if we keep protecting these wind companies at the expense of lower priced electricity providers.

 

Also, tourism and "Quality of Place" will be hurt.

See:

http://www.windtaskforce.org/page/myth-of-green-jobs

Comment by Norman Mitchell on April 7, 2013 at 8:23am

And what will  those 20 jobs cost Maine Taxpayers ?

Comment by Norman Mitchell on April 7, 2013 at 8:21am

There are approximately 154.4 million employed individuals in the US.  The 60,000 jobs claimed here if true is still very slight 1 job in 2567 / at lest  22.2 million people million people are unemployed that's 370  times the 60,000 jobs they site .  their large number sound big but really are not in  Maine there are  598,000 people employed  at the rate of 1 job in 2567 at best this would be  about 233 Jobs for Maine and at what cost what a scam !!  There are 51,659 people unemployed in Maine at the rate of 1 in 2567 this would mean 20 jobs for Maine !!! Wow lets destroy Maine for 20 jobs what a bargain !!

 

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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