Sierra Club targets GOP lawmakers for opposing wind energy tax credit
By Zack Colman | E2 Wire | The Hill | thehill.com 30 July 2012
By Zack Colman | E2 Wire | The Hill | thehill.com 30 July 2012
An environmental group launched ads Monday targeting three GOP lawmakers for failing to push for an extension of a tax credit for wind energy producers, charging them with killing green energy jobs.
The Sierra Club will air commercials attacking Reps. Blake Farenthold (Texas), Bill Shuster (Ariz.) and Bob Latta (Ohio) in their respective districts for the next two weeks. The ads spotlight the lawmakers’ opposition to the wind energy production tax credit (PTC), which pays 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of wind energy to producers.
“The wind industry currently supports more than 75,000 jobs across the country, but if the PTC is not renewed by the end of the year, as many as half of these jobs could be lost,” the group said in a statement Monday. “Already, layoffs have been announced at manufacturing facilities and new wind installations have been delayed due to uncertainty around the PTC’s fate.”
President Obama has called on Congress to extend the PTC, which expires at the end of the year. Administration officials and wind energy firms say uncertainty over the tax credit’s future has already led to energy industry layoffs.
But many Republican lawmakers are delaying an extension in hopes of forcing comprehensive tax code reform. GOP lawmakers also have opposed Obama’s energy policies, saying that they cater to green companies at the expense of fossil fuel firms and have wasted taxpayer dollars on untested energy projects.
The Sierra Club previously targeted Reps. Joe Heck (R-Nev.), Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) and Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) with similar commercials.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/07/30/sierra-club-targets-gop-lawmakers-for-opposing-wind-energy-tax-credit/