The production tax credit pays about 20 dollars per megawatt hour. So a single wind turbine like one at Wildorado, can make up to 45 dollars an hour or over 400 thousand dollars a year. This money is essential for developers because it can cost hundreds of million dollars to build a wind farm. "Most of the companies I've visited with say wind energy would not be financially feasible without this federal tax credit that goes with production," said Congressman Mac Thornberry.

A federal clock is ticking on an ambitious Texas Public Utility Commission plan to build transmission lines to funnel wind energy from West Texas to metropolitan areas. The wind energy industry revolves around a production tax credit that expires Dec. 31. After more than one false start, there is no guarantee Congress will extend it. Expansion will halt, some warn, if lawmakers don't take action this summer. "We don't want lines to just be standing out there," Sweetwater Mayor Greg Wortham said of the planned transmission lines. Wortham is also director of the West Texas Energy Consortium. Until a turbine is producing juice -- no credit.

The looming expiration date and uncertainty about whether Congress will extend the so-called renewable energy production tax credit is making it more difficult for wind project developers to line up financing, industry officials say. According to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, 25 wind energy companies have expressed an interest in developing about 1,000 megawatts of wind power in the state during the next few years. ... "This isn't emergency spending," said Herseth Sandlin, a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. Johnson agreed that they need to find a way to pay for the extension.

"If we don't get something done in the next 30 days or so, we're going to start seeing facilities being delayed, turbines moved offshore," Eber warned. "We've got to get Congress to try to do something for us because it's starting to look like it's going to have an impact on expected deliveries." Lack of clarity surrounding when or whether the PTC will be extended has hampered wind development and consolidation. ...GE Energy Financial Services will invest $2 billion in renewable energy in 2008, separately from investments by GE Energy, Walsh said, later emphasizing that the company is "not captive" to the U.S. market. "This is a global market. If we don't have the incentives, we're going to invest elsewhere. To have stable policies, to have the right risk reward, whether it's China or Europe or wherever, that's where the money is going to go," Walsh said.

General Electric Co. executives and spokespeople said Wednesday another congressional failure to extend a tax credit for renewable energy projects could put billions of dollars worth of future wind farms in jeopardy. ...The federal production tax credit (PTC) for solar, wind and other renewable power projects is set to expire on Dec. 31. It is indexed to inflation, so owners of wind farms receive a tax credit of 2.1 cents per kilowatt hour for the first 10 years of operation. The PTC was first instituted in 1992 to help encourage renewable energy sources and reduce pollution.

The Energy Independence and Tax Relief Act of 2008 would have extended a tax credit to build windmills by one year through December 31, 2009, and extend for three years similar credits for renewable energy sources like biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and trash combustion. The bill failed to garner enough votes to limit debate and move to a vote, leaving the fate of the clean-energy credits uncertain. Extension of renewable energy credits was the most expensive portion of the bill, at about $7 billion over 10 years.

Congress struggles to fund a one-year extension that will cost $3.5 billion to pay wind generators the credit for 10 years. The House passed the extension in May, but the Senate has failed three times to approve it this year. ...On Tuesday, the Senate failed again to approve wind power's tax credit that was contained in a larger package of tax provisions. "The general agreement among everyone is: 'Look, Congress is not going to let these things expire,' " said Bill Wicker, spokesman for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of extra dollars laying around."

To the disappointment of many Silicon Valley companies, partisan politics in Congress on Tuesday continued to block the extension of tax credits for renewable energy and research and development. The Senate voted 50-44 - 10 votes short of the total needed - to close debate and take a final vote on a package of tax credits for solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable energy producers, which are due to expire at the end of the year. The bill also would reinstate R&D tax credits that expired at the end of 2007.

Senate Republicans thwarted Democratic-supported legislation that would increase windfall- profit taxes on oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. as Democrats set their sights on tighter energy trading scrutiny. Democrats fell nine votes shy today of 60 needed to proceed to debate. The White House Office of Management and Budget today threatened a veto of the measure. ..."The bill before us is pure and simple, a pathetic attempt to even call itself an energy plan,'' Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said on the Senate floor. A windfall profit tax passed in 1980 was "an abject failure.''

Amid voter frustration over record-high fuel prices, U.S. Senate Democrats plan to bring up on Tuesday legislation that takes aim at oil companies, speculators and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The vote marks the Democratic party's most comprehensive response to rising gasoline, jet fuel and diesel prices, and will kick off a debate that is expected to last at least until the presidential elections in November. Republicans are expected to block the plan ...The U.S. Senate is also voting this week on whether to proceed with a tax bill that would extend tax credits for projects to generate energy from solar power, wind, and other sources of renewable energy.

Vic Abate, vice president for renewables for GE Energy a maker of turbines, said that wind could become a "mainstream fuel source" with the right policies in place. Given the regulatory uncertainty in the United States, GE and others are spreading the investment risk around the globe by funneling manufacturing and other operations to Europe, China and India, he remarked. Ditlev Engel, chief executive of Denmark-based turbine builder Vestas, noted that the company was launched in 1986 when oil cost about $14 a barrel. Now, Vestas employs 18,000 people and America is its largest market. "Having potential and realizing it are two different things," he said. "A lot of things have to be done."

Delaware's two big wind-power initiatives face an uncertain future as millions of dollars in federal subsidies are being held up in Congress. ...In the absence of an extension for the credit, Delmarva would likely have to wait out a delay in construction, or pay more for the power. The Bluewater project's timeline is longer, making it less susceptible to the short-term political stalemate. But the uneven history of the credit underscores a risk to the Bluewater project, observers say. ...Bluewater spokesman Jim Lanard said it was "unimaginable" that Congress would stop funding the tax credit, and that Bluewater was prepared to move forward with the project even if Congress elects to fund the tax credit on a year-by-year basis.

A local company has lost out on part of a $45 million project in the Midwest because federal tax incentives for renewable energy sources - an integral part of the economics of all renewable energy projects - are set to expire on Dec. 31. Roughly $200 million invested in two Pittsfield projects that would produce up to 50 megawatts of energy and 50 million gallons of biodiesel is also likely to be affected. Two wind turbine projects in North County that would collectively produce nearly 38 megawatts of energy could also face significant funding obstacles. ...If the extension fails, Fairbank, of EOS, said, on Jan. 1, "the industry just takes a massive blow because you just can't make the economics of these projects work without incentives."

The House passed a $54 billion tax package Wednesday that Democratic backers said would help relieve dependence on imported oil while easing the economic strain on parents, homeowners and businesses. ...The measure would provide some $17 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, carbon capture and sequestration projects, plug-in cars and technology for green buildings. It would also create a new category of tax credit bonds to finance state and local government initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Marking the start of yet another bid to move the stalled extension of renewable energy tax credits through Congress, the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday approved a $50 billion tax package that contains a slew of incentives for clean energy and biofuel production. The committee passed the legislation on a largely party-line 25-12 vote after several hours of debate on amendments that mostly had little to do with the bill's energy provisions. ...The legislation provides for an extension until the end of 2009 of the wind power production tax credit -- a measure that renewable energy advocates say is pivotal for survival of the industry. Other alternative energy sources -- such as biomass and geothermal -- are extended for three years.

The House's tax-writing committee on Thursday approved a multifaceted tax package it said would save people almost $10 billion through expansion of the child tax credit and creation of a new deduction for property taxes. But the Ways and Means Committee put off for another day the annual debate over what to do with the alternative minimum tax that threatens millions of taxpayers with thousands of dollars in extra taxes apiece unless Congress acts to suppress it.

Here's a challenge: How do you keep clamoring for subsidies when your industry shatters growth records with numbing regularity? ...Congress keeps dithering over the renewal of clean-energy tax credits. They expire later this year, and-since they make wind power more cost-competitive with regular electricity generation-have historically been crucial to the industry's development. They apparently still are. ...Granted, price supports have been crucial to the development of wind power everywhere. ...But when consumers are already being battered by higher prices for gasoline (and electricity), and your industry is thriving, how easy is it to keep pleading for more help?

The U.S. House of Representatives next week could weigh legislation that extends tax incentives to use renewable energy sources like wind and solar and slaps new taxes on big energy companies, Democratic aides said on Friday. Plans have not been finalized, but Democratic leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi want to show their displeasure at near-record high oil prices and record-setting profits recently reported by oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp, aides said on condition of anonymity.

The American Wind Energy Association on Wednesday announced that 2008 was shaping up to be another strong year of growth for the U.S. wind power industry, with 1,400 new megawatts added during the first quarter ...Although the industry is actively lobbying for an extension of the tax credit this year, when the continued support of wind power is so critical to its mass adoption, they quietly concede that things are a little different now. Wind power economics have improved to the point that, at least in many parts of the country, it is competitive with other fuel sources, even without a tax credit.

Times have never been better for wind power. The industry's growth rate doubled last year, and additional turbines are going up across the country. But the industry is heavily dependent on a federal tax subsidy that's set to expire at the end of this year. And the industry's growth is steadily increasing the cost of the subsidy and making it tougher for lawmakers to keep it going. ...Last year, the industry added 5,244 megawatts of capacity, more than twice the 2,454 megawatts added in 2006. That brought the nationwide capacity to 16,818 megawatts. But that growth also means that continuing the subsidy for one more year, through 2009, would cost taxpayers $3 billion. "The problem with a long-term extension is that it's cost-prohibitive as long as the industry continues to expand. Budget-wise, it's hard to do it for an extended period of time," said Frank Maisano, an energy industry lobbyist.