Tax breaks for wind industry, higher electric bills for rest of us
Mineral Daily News-Tribune, www.newstribune.info 28 December 2010
Mineral Daily News-Tribune, www.newstribune.info 28 December 2010
WHY, WHY, WHY? Why are we doing this to ourselves?
Hidden in the tax bill passed by Congress is a grant program that pays cash to the wind industry to cover 30 percent of the cost of installing a wind farm.
This is on top of state and federal tax breaks, doubly accelerated depreciation, and above-market pricing that already amounts to 60 percent of capital costs. These figures come from a memo to President Obama, generated by the Office of Management and Budget, and the Treasury. So, how much do the developers have to pay?
You guessed it, around 10 percent. This means that the public is building those wind farms for investors and in return we get our electricity bills increased.
The presidential briefing above uses a proposed $1.9 billion project in Oregon as an example. When all is said and done, taxpayers will have given the project $1.2 billion and will own nothing.
It is pretty obvious to me that the public should take another look at industrial wind. Why would we want to put this much of our money in something that will raise our electricity bills?
Dallas Adams
Knobley Road
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/12/30/tax-breaks-for-wind-industry-higher-electric-bills-for-rest-of-us/