Tax wind energy instead of fuel
News-Press | Feb. 14, 2017 | www.newspressnow.com
Missouri legislators are again looking for ways to find additional funds for the Missouri Department of Transportation. Some new taxes already have been proposed, including an additional tax on gasoline and diesel fuel.
These taxes you and I would pay, whether we drive a vehicle or not, in the additional cost of everything that moves by truck. Government already is getting the biggest part of the cost of each gallon of fuel sold.
I believe a better idea would be to tax a resource that is currently produced in Missouri, but consumed elsewhere. Wyoming currently has a tax on wind energy produced in their state and Oklahoma is considering a similar measure. Missouri should do the same.
A tax on energy produced here but consumed in other states like Illinois and Indiana would make sense. Only a small fraction of landowners in counties that have industrial wind complexes, and the big wind companies, see any benefit from the resource we are providing, while everyone shares in the cost of the decline in property values and experiences noise problems, an altered landscape, television signal interference and the detrimental effects to wildlife.
Tax the wind companies, not gasoline.
Kyle Carroll
Maysville, Missouri
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/02/14/tax-wind-energy-instead-of-fuel/