Senate gridlock continues to threaten U.S. wind and solar energy development
As the end of 2008 approaches, the bill in the U.S. Senate to extend wind and solar energy tax credits continues to languish. Inability to put together a comprehensive energy package continues to threaten the renewal of these important tax incentives for alternative energy.
So dire is the situation that, as Environmental Capital reports, the head of GE Energy, John Krenecki, flew to D.C. to plead with senators to extend the credits. Krenecki told Environmental Capital that “I’m prepared to come down every week to say the same thing. If the production tax credit expires in the U.S., the wind industry will collapse.”
He then added that if the U.S. government can’t put together an alternative energy policy that is “reliable and predictable,” then GE Energy will be forced to “go to Germany and China,” where governmental regulations have created a more welcome atmosphere for wind energy development.
GE Energy’s concerns are not unfounded, either. E360 notes that according to the American Wind Energy Association, a wind energy trade group, the last time federal wind energy credits were allowed to expire (namely in 1999, 2001, and 2003), investment in wind projects fell between 70% to 93%.
While we’re not sure that tax credits are the best way to solve our energy crisis, it is clearly one of the best tools we currently have in place. To let it expire, especially without having implemented a better solution such as a carbon tax, would be inexcusable by Congress.
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