May 10, 2014
Letters, Maine

Wind projects

Bangor Daily News | Posted May 09, 2014 | bangordailynews.com

Maine has become more divided on the value and purpose of industrial wind projects. In the May 5 Wall Street Journal, there was an opinion piece about billionaire Warren Buffett and how he utilizes every legal tax break available in order to minimize Berkshire Hathaway’s tax payments.

One technique would appear to lend credence to those opposing industrial wind. When Buffett became more explicit about tax credits available to the wealthy and to large investment funds, he stated, “I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire’s tax rate. … For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”

The piece continues, “Buffett says it makes no economic sense to build wind farms without a tax credit. … So political favors for the wind industry induce a leading U.S. company to misallocate its scarce investment dollars for an uneconomic purpose. Berkshire and its billionaire shareholder get a tax break, and the feds get less revenue, which must be made up by raising tax rates on millions of other Americans who are much less well-heeled than Buffett.”

Our stimulus funds gave $21 billion to renewable energy projects. And Big Wind can auction off Renewable Energy Credits allowing out-of-state polluters to continue polluting because they have “green” credits.

Should we continue to sacrifice our natural assets for this?

Peter Fisher

Lakeville


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/05/10/wind-projects/