December 31, 2015
Oklahoma

Oklahoma taxpayers react to wind energy tax increase

Wednesday, December 30, 2015 | www.kten.com

OKLAHOMA – “A tax is a tax, if Oklahomans are only getting a portion of the energy that’s using, I mean making, I don’t see how there’s a benefit,” Oklahoma tax payer, Kelly Eakin says.

Although wind energy is a cleaner source of energy, Kelly Eakin says he doesn’t feel that he should have to pay more money to use it.

“Why do they need us to pay the extra money? I don’t think its right,” Eakin says.

Congress passed a new federal budget last week, which includes billions of dollars in tax breaks.

And one of those groups included in the break are wind energy farms.

Although some Oklahoma taxpayers are worried about the tax increase the new budget will bring, the American Wind Energy Association says the amount of jobs the farms provide is definitely worth it.

“That includes jobs in construction, in development, in maintenance, and also in manufacturing,” AWEA spokeswoman, Hannah Hunt says.

73,000 jobs in the entire nation to be exact.

But for one Oklahoma teacher, Sharla Carlisle says there are more important things for tax payers to spend their money on.

“I think since our schools are struggling right now, and nobody’s wanting to fund teacher raises or any of that stuff, I don’t think our money needs to go towards somebody else’s wind tunnels, maybe those companies need to be helping fund our education,” Carlisle says.

Wind farms provide clean green energy but some ask, is it worth the amount of green taxpayers will spend?

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/12/31/oklahoma-taxpayers-react-to-wind-energy-tax-increase/