First Wind CEO Paul Gaynor once likened federal tax credits to “heroin” for the wind power industry. And you know what happens when a junkie doesn’t get his fix. With the $1.1 trillion “Cromnibus” passed and sent on to the president, and the House home for the holidays, the Senate was left with “tax extenders” legislation that… Keep reading →
Long known for its boom or bust tendencies, the U.S. wind energy industry outdid itself in 2013. Capacity additions fell off a cliff, dropping more than 90 percent from 2012 and hitting their lowest level in a decade – but by the end of the year, new projects were under construction at a record-breaking clip.… Keep reading →
How much will Senator Grassley’s plan to extend the Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) add to the national debt we are passing along to our children and grandchildren? On Thursday, April 3, 2014, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee is expected to consider and report out to the full Senate a bill that would extend various… Keep reading →
A bipartisan coalition of 144 House and Senate members have written to the House Speaker and Senate Finance Committee urging extension of the wind energy production tax credit. On March 21, 2014, a group of 118 House members led by Reps. Steve King (R-IA) and Dave Loebsack (D-IA) wrote to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)… Keep reading →
Last year, the US wind industry Production Tax Credit was scheduled to expire at the end of December and the news media was all over it. The PTC is also scheduled to expire that the end of this year, but the issue is getting much less attention, why is that? Senator Don Nickles, who served… Keep reading →
Canadian government negations with energy industry representatives regarding a carbon emissions mitigation strategy have reportedly been underway for the past two years with little to show for the effort. A climate plan could improve the Keystone XL pipeline’s chances of being approved by the US government. [Reuters] The boom and bust cycle that characterizes PTC-dependent… Keep reading →
We already knew it was a record-breaking year for the U.S. wind power industry in 2012, as fears that the production tax credit for wind would vanish drove installations at a frenzy pace toward the end of the year. Some 8,380 megawatts of the year’s 13,124 megawatts of generating capacity went online in the fourth quarter, which means that nearly 15 percent of the total wind power capacity ever installed in the country happened in the last three months of 2012.
But which states did the most damage in the year? A new release from the American Wind Energy Association breaks it down. Keep reading →
They took it right to the edge, but the US wind energy business managed to rescue the production tax credit around which many of their projects and manufacturing investments are structured. In the process Capitol Hill supporters of the sector rescued a claimed 37,000 jobs and the supply chain for a rapidly expanding form of power generation.
The effort to rescue the wind energy PTC and the also-extended investment tax credit (ITC) was not directly linked to the fiscal cliff debate, but became intertwined with the calendar-driven effort to prevent earlier tax cuts and credits from expiring without any replacement policy in place. The inclusion of the wind energy PTC, which was thought to be sufficiently likely to expire that companies spent significant sums as they rushed to turn on wind farms before the end of 2012, speaks to the expanded power of the wind industry groups in Washington, DC and the increased centrality of the wind energy business to major infrastructure and engineering firms with substantial US manufacturing operations including GE Energy, Siemens and Vestas. Keep reading →
