The wind industry has a deal for lawmakers: they’re willing to sacrifice their tax credit for deficit reduction, as long as it’s not snatched away too quickly. Wind turbine makers say they’re OK with an industry plan to gradually phase out its tax credit as part of the fiscal cliff discussion — provided lawmakers extend it for another six years. The wind industry has been fretting that its tax credit – which covers about 30% of the cost of wind power — won’t be renewed when it expires at the end of 2012. The industry says up to 37,000 jobs are on the line if the credit expires. In a bid to prevent that from happening, the American Wind Energy Association said last week that the industry can compete against other power sources like coal and natural gas by 2018, so long as the credit doesn’t disappear before then.