Granholm’s misleading PTC rationale
www.politico.com 17 April 2012
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm recently attempted to paint House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) as a hypocrite for supporting domestic energy production and job growth. Granholm’s misleading rationale for her support of the wind Production Tax Credit deserves a response.
It’s absurd for Granholm, whose state lost more than 632,000 jobs when she was governor, to instruct House Republicans how best to create a pro-growth jobs agenda. Amazingly, her solution for job growth and energy production—more failed spending—is the same one that has kept U.S. unemployment at more than 8 percent for years.
The narrowly targeted subsidy for the wind PTC is not the same as the widely available tax deduction for all domestic manufacturers— that all manufacturing industries may take. Big Wind is howling to keep a subsidy that will likely cost U.S. taxpayers over a billion dollars a year—and ratepayers billions more—at a time when our economy is struggling and our debt is soaring to record levels.
It is disingenuous for politicians, who have fed Big Wind subsidies for decades, to say that wind energy is close to full maturity – and now affordable when compared with other energy sources – while also claiming that the expiration of the wind PTC will lead to a massive drop off in new projects. It’s past time for wind energy to stand on its own two feet.
Despite Big Wind’s spending in Washington, a growing number of Republicans in Congress are rejecting the carve-outs and favors of yesteryear. I am proud of the speaker for promoting a pro-jobs, free-market agenda in the House. That big-government Democrats like Granholm are attacking him is proof that we’re on the right track and that the culture in Washington is changing for the better.
Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.)
House Energy and Commerce Committee
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/04/17/granholms-misleading-ptc-rationale/