AWEA Blog - Extending PTC ‘not a political issue’

Those are the words of Christina Sanchez Werner in a recent letter to the Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain newspaper concerning an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC). Ms. Werner praised U.S. Sen. Mark Udall (R-Colo.) for his support for the PTC, saying, “Contrary to the opinions of other letter writers, wind energy has been extremely successful … Like investing in our children’s education, the production tax credit provides a needed jump start to young technologies like wind energy until they can compete in the global marketplace.”

While the PTC has been endorsed by eight of nine members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation and has “bipartisan support across the nation,” Ms. Werner added, Congressional inaction is resulting in the loss of good-paying jobs in Pueblo.

The PTC provides an income tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first 10 years of electricity production from utility-scale wind turbines. It is set to expire on Dec. 31 unless Congress extends it first. A recent study by Navigant Consulting found that extending the Production Tax Credit will allow the industry to grow to 100,000 jobs in just four years, while an expiration would kill 37,000 jobs within a year.

A House bill seeking to extend the PTC has 110 cosponsors, including 25 Republicans, while a similar Senate bill is cosponsored by seven Senators, including three Republicans. PTC extension efforts have received the endorsement of a broad coalition of more than 370 members, including the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Edison Electric Institute, and the Western Governors’ Association. A PTC extension also has the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Governors Association, and the bipartisan Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, which includes 23 Republican and Democratic Governors from across the U.S. A PTC extension has been endorsed by a number of newspapers across the country, including the Des Moines Register, the Denver Post, the Daily Oklahoman, the Toledo Blade, the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago Sun-Times, and The New York Times.