Renewable-energy subsidy twists in political winds

WASHINGTON — Time is running out for Congress to extend a tax credit that the wind-energy industry says is vital to its future.

The wind production tax credit, or PTC, is scheduled to expire Dec. 31, and it’s unclear if supporters will be able to get Congress to renew an incentive that costs the U.S. Treasury more than $10 billion each year.

Lawmakers aren’t focused on tax issues but on other matters like the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act and a stalemate in budget talks aimed at averting another partial-government shutdown in early 2014.

Unlike in 2012, there has also been little debate on Capitol Hill about the need to renew the tax credit of 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. For instance, Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., gave more than 25 speeches last year on the Senate floor in favor of the PTC. He hasn’t mounted a similar effort this year.

“I remain committed to giving Colorado companies the certainty they need to create jobs and keep our wind energy industry strong,” Udall said Monday in a written statement. “Although there is not a clear path to address expiring tax provisions quite yet, I will work with my colleagues to ensure that this job-creating industry is not left behind.”

Supporters, who include many Democrats and some Republicans, are working quietly to extend the tax credit into 2014 and beyond, but things don’t look promising given the continuing partisan rift over federal spending and the unsuccessful push for an overhaul of U.S. tax code.

As conservative Republicans intensify their effort to permanently kill the PTC, which has been part of the tax code in some form since 1992, the wind industry itself faces some negative publicity.

In late November, the U.S. Justice Department announced a settlement with Duke Energy Renewables, which pleaded guilty to the deaths of 14 golden eagles and 149 other migratory birds at two of its wind farms in Wyoming. The company was assessed $1 million in fines and restitution for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Though wind power is clean and doesn’t emit carbon or methane — both of which are linked to climate change — critics note that it’s at best an “intermittent” energy source because it can be produced only when it’s breezy. Wind supplied 3.46 percent of the nation’s electricity in 2012, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Pressure to extend the PTC comes from the wind industry and a bipartisan coalition of 11 governors. In a Nov. 6 letter to congressional leaders, the governors wrote that last year’s partisan bickering led to a delayed extension of the PTC for a year and sparked “a very troubled recovery” for the wind industry.

An industry that spent $25 billion in 2012 built just one turbine in the first six months of this year, which represents a “a 99 percent drop in investments,” the governors wrote.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, said he’s working to craft a bipartisan tax-reform package as a member of the bipartisan budget panel working to avoid another shutdown. However, if such a deal isn’t possible this year, he said he’ll find a way to extend the tax credits for renewable energy.

“If we can’t get tax reform moving quickly, obviously to just let wind and solar and the renewables be sacrificed will be a huge mistake,” he said after a recent energy committee hearing. “We’re going to have to be ready to look at other kinds of options because you can’t strand those critical investments.”

He didn’t specify what those options would be.

The ranking Republican on the Senate energy panel, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, expressed support for a multi-year renewal. She said a one-year extension is “lousy policy” because it wouldn’t provide the certainty that the industry needs, but also stressed that Uncle Sam can’t provide tax breaks for wind forever.

“I’ve advocated that there needs to be a glide path out,” Murkowski said.

Critics would rather see the PTC blow away for good.

In mid-November, 52 House members led by Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., urged the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means to put an end to the tax credit.

“The growth in wind is driven not by market demand, but by a combination of state renewable portfolio standards and a tax credit that is now more valuable than the price of the electricity the plants actually generate,” the House critics said in a letter.

Paul Knappenberger, an energy-policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, said ending the PTC might be difficult not just because of its bipartisan support on Capitol Hill but also because President Barack Obama’s climate-action plan, unveiled this year, calls for more wind energy.

Though the PTC faces tougher odds this year compared to 2012, “the ace in the hole is the climate-action plan,” he said.

Ideally, the government would stop propping up any and all energy industries, forcing each sector to stand or fall on its own, Knappenberger said.

“We are against government favoritism in picking winners and losers,” he said. “None of the industries should get it.”