AEA Enlists New House Leaders to End Wind Welfare

WASHINGTON – American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle sent a letter today to House Leadership congratulating the newly elected Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise. The letter also urges them to remain opposed to an extension of the recently expired Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC). AEA also ran a full page ad in today’s edition of Politico as part of a broader paid initiative that includes digital and social media.

Excerpts from the letter:

The PTC expired as of January 1, 2014. However, green pressure groups and the wind lobby are working to revive this costly policy as part of a tax extenders package and also have it be retroactively reinstated. We urge you to oppose such an action.

We agree with Majority Leader McCarthy that subsidies for wind have “had their time”. Majority Whip Scalise, you have similarly condemned the PTC. In late 2012, you joined with 44 fellow Representatives in a letter stating, “Twenty years of subsidizing wind is more than enough.” This decades old subsidy has far outlived its usefulness. The wind industry should be left to compete in the free market based on its own merits, not rely on taxpayer dollars. We ask that you stand by your previous positions and remain in opposition to an extension of this wasteful subsidy.

The effect of providing a subsidy worth half or more of the wholesale price of electricity has already negatively impacted electricity reliability, because the artificial price structure created by the PTC encourages the development of uneconomic wind while undermining the economics of reliable full-time generation such as coal, natural gas, and nuclear. Investor Warren Buffett made this fact very clear when her recently said, “…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.”

To read the full letter, click here.
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