The chairman and vice chairman of the bipartisan Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition sent a letter to House and Senate leadership in May urging Congress to approve a multi-year extension of the renewable energy production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC) as soon as possible. The most recently passed extension expired last year.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad told congressional leaders that the recent Wind Vision report emphasized the importance of near-term policy support to prevent an industry slow down and the loss of manufacturing to foreign markets. Without policy support, wind deployment will be minimal and the domestic wind manufacturing sector will likely wither:
“Our assessment of the Department of Energy’s recently released ‘Wind Vision’ report is that the domestic wind manufacturing industry is likely to stagnate over the next decade without the PTC. We anticipate that wind energy will be truly competitive with traditional energy sources soon given innovation in the industry.”
The governors also highlighted wind energy’s diverse public policy benefits, providing justification for near-term tax incentives:
“We believe it is important to recognize all the public policy benefits of wind energy, including a diversified energy portfolio, public health benefits, domestically-sourced energy, and others. We are also concerned that thousands of manufacturing jobs could be lost without stable federal policy.”
“There also exists enormous potential in the development of our nation’s offshore wind energy resources, and the investment tax credit is a vital tool for our capturing that opportunity and further developing domestic renewable energy industries,” the governors wrote, with regard to the importance of the ITC.
“These tax credits have made possible the robust growth of the American wind industry and thousands of renewable energy jobs in recent years, with substantial economic returns to our states and the nation. But these gains are at risk…because ongoing federal policy uncertainty continues to hamper the further development of the nation’s wind industry.”
The leaders of the 22-member bipartisan governors’ coalition urged congressional leaders to act promptly to extend the renewable energy production and investment tax credits.
— Source: Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition
