More press support for PTC extension
The Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday became the most recent major newspaper to endorse an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), calling the revival of the shuttered U.S. Steel plant in Bucks County the “best case” for renewing the vital incentive.
Added the editorial, “It’s at the old Fairless Works that the Spanish turbine manufacturer Gamesa has employed hundreds of people, and where predicted layoffs affecting 20 per cent of the firm’s Pennsylvania workforce would hit hard.
“Gamesa has grown by leaps, building wind-power equipment and wind farms that generate 40 per cent of the state’s wind power–all while relying on domestic suppliers for an increasingly large share of its components.”
The PTC, the Inquirer noted, provides an incentive to wind project developers based solely on the actual production from a wind farm that is already up and operating, so there is no risk to the government.
It concluded, “Of course, there are critics who say wind power will have to stand on its own someday. But with the nation’s reliance on wind power standing at only three per cent far below potential – that day has not arrived.”
The PTC provides an income tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first 10 years of electricity production from utility-scale wind turbines. It is set to expire on Dec. 31 unless Congress extends it first. A recent study by Navigant Consulting found that extending the Production Tax Credit will allow the industry to grow to 100,000 jobs in just four years, while an expiration would kill 37,000 jobs within a year.
