Dear Congress : Wind is good!
While I was checking my Google feed reader under the Energy section, I stumbled across a graph that looked a little too familiar. The colors and overall design instantly grabbed my attention. Was this a GE pitch?
Indeed, it was. GE Energy Financial Services is trying to politely explain to the U.S. Congress that it’s a good idea to offer incentives to build wind energy projects. (This is the same U.S. Congress who routinely gives out hundreds of billions of dollars in oil production incentives.) It seems that just as the U.S. was on the way to catching up with the rest of Europe in renewable energy production, the fightin’ 110th decided to yank away the credits.
GE’s position is simple : by creating thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars in new tax revenue, building wind projects makes financial sense–even if Congress must first pay out some incentives. The net gain from 2007 was $250 million. Not bad, considering that doesn’t count the environmental benefits of wind vs. coal, gas, etc.
I’m a libertarian and don’t like subsidies in principle, but this one seems to make sense. Unlike coal, oil, and other fossil fuels, wind has a very high ratio of jobs per megawatt. It’s probably one of the few subsidies that literally pays for itself. We would be completely foolish in taking a huge step backwards by repealling the production tax credits.
Oh, wait. Foolishness is what Congress does best.
Filed under economics, energy, environment, politics : Comments (0) : Jun 20th, 2008 by tadfad
