Speaker of the House
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Speaker Boehner :
We are writing to urge you to allow the wind production tax credit( PTC) to expire at
the end of 2012 under current law and not to include an extension of PTC in a package of tax extenders should the house consider one later this year.
The Obama administration has poured billions of dollars into subsidizing its favored
" green energy"sources. The Solyndra scandal and the administration squandering of $535
million in taxpayer dollars is a clear example of this agenda.under this administration, federal subsidies for wind have grown from $476 million per year when the president took office to $4.98 billion per year today. However, when remains an intermittent resource; the wind does not
below all the time, and wind farms do not produce power constantly the way traditional power plants to.
The wind energy production tax credit was established by the energy policy act of 1992
and provides wind energy producers a 2.2 cent subsidy for every kilowatt hour of electricity produced. The subsidy attach this to a wind farm when this bill and continues for its first 10 years of operation. A one – year extension of the PTC would cost American taxpayers over $12
billion.
Even if the PTC expires,a wind farm built in 2012 will continue to receive subsidies until
2022 and, as a consequence, the bipartisan joint committee on taxation estimates that will add
$6.8 million to the deficit between 2011 and 2015. Today, when the U.S. Is more than $15
trillion in debt and borrowing $0.40 of every dollar it spends, we cannot afford to borrow money
to subsidize the operations of a politically preferred technology.
In the case of wind, doing so would not only be costly to taxpayers but ultimately would
hurt consumers by distorting energy markets. Since the PTC provides a tax benefit for new
projects, it often drives wind developers to build projects with little regard to consumer demand,
as long as they can be placed online in their power brought to market to collect the subsidy. In
fact,because the tax subsidy is tied to the amount of electricity generated when producers will sometimes sell their electricity for nothing or even payrolls fell electricity to take their
power in order to collect the tax subsidy. This subsidized and intermittent power distorts
markets and threatens around -the - clock baseload power producers, forcing them to pay as well or
shut down for long periods of the day with her power is needed most. This will ultimately
harm consumers who need power that is affordable and available around the clock.
We believe that the Solyndra scandal has demonstrated that it is time for the federal
government to stop picking winners and losers in the energy marketplace. Twenty years of
subsidizing wind is more than enough. Our nation can simply no longer afford to pick winners and losers in the energy marketplace. The PTC should expire at the end of the year under current law.
Sincerely,
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Mike Pompeo ( KS – 04)
Jeff Flake ( AZ – 06)
Ed Whitfield ( KY – 01)
Joel Barton ( TX – 07)
Cliff Stearns ( Fl – 06)
Mike Simpson (ID – 02)
Jeff Miller ( FL – 01)
Lynn Westmoreland (GA – 03)
Trent Franks ( AZ – 02)
John Kline ( MN – 02)
Louie Gohmert( TX– 01)
Jo Bonner ( AL – 01)
Joe Wilson (SC – 02)
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Marlon Sturtzman ( IN – 03)
Bill Flores( DX – 17)
Richard Nugent ( FL05)
Dave Schweikert ( AZ – 05)
Alan Nunnelee ( MS – 01)
Tom Graves ( GA – 09)
Jason Chaffetz (UT - 30)
Mick Mulvaney ( SC – 05)
Justin Amash ( MI – 03)
John Carter ( TX – 31)
Dennis Ross ( FL – 12)
Joe Pitts ( PA – 16)
Randy Hultgren ( Il – 14)
Tom McClintock ( CA – 04)
Steve Scalise ( LA – 01)
Joe Walsh ( IL –08)
Doug Lamborn ( CO –05)
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Paul Broun ( GA – 10) Stephen Fincher (TN) – 08
Pete Olson ( TX– 22) Jim Jordan (0H – 04)
Richard Hanna ( NY – 24) Ed Royce ( CA – 40)
Brett Guthrie ( KY – 02) John Fleming ( LA – 04)
Dave McKinley ( WV – 01) Phil Roe ( TN – 01)
Jeff Landry ( LA– 03) Sandy Adams ( FL – 24)
Marsha Blackburn ( TN – 07) Ralph Labrador ( I D – 01)
Vicki Hartzler ( M0 – 04)
1 comment:
Not a single elected NY representative signed this letter. You'd think one of them would have the gumption to think for themselves and understand the PTC is a corporate welfare for a failed technology.
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