It’s time to end the wind production tax credit
Billings Gazette | billingsgazette.com
Don’t extend the wind production tax credit. An article in the July 19 Gazette warned of tripling transmission cost for electricity because of new lines needed for wind energy. I already pay as much for transmission as I do for the energy itself and that’s enough.
The production tax credits wind energy gets is only one of the many ways we taxpayers are paying to subside an ineffective, unreliable energy source. I have often wondered as I drive by a wind farm that’s not turning, why? It seems like the wind is blowing. Then I see an article where the BPA wanted to pay wind farms for 50 percent of money lost from shutting down wind farms because the rivers were running full and dams were making all the power needed. So now we are paying wind to compete with hydro and not just coal? How is wind more environmental friendly than water?
The production tax credit started in 1992. That’s 20 years. If it hasn’t made wind work yet, it never will. It’s time for this tax credit to end. Let wind sink or swim on its own merit.
Darren Brown
Ryegate
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/08/05/its-time-to-end-the-wind-production-tax-credit/