The AWEA Blog: Into the Wind


Colorado wind jobs seen hinging on PTC extension

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 Tom Gray, Consultant

Colorado's effort to build a domestic wind power industry, which has led to the creation of 5,000 jobs in the state, is threatened by the impending expiration of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), according to the Denver Post.

 

The article quotes Tracee Bentley, associate director of the Colorado Energy Office: "The tax credit is critical. We have one of the most highly trained work forces in wind production, and we want to see those jobs stay in Colorado."  It also notes that Vestas Wind Systems, which built four factories in Colorado, has reduced its work force, previously 1,700 employees, by nearly one-third.



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Sen. Grassley provides Q&A on PTC

Posted: 28 Dec 2012 Tom Gray, Consultant

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offers his thoughts on the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) in a Q&A column published yesterday in the Toledo (Iowa) Chronicle newspaper.

Some excerpts:

- "The idea [of establishing the PTC] was to try to level the playing field with coal-fired and nuclear electricity generation. Both of those energy sources benefit from federal support."

- " ... [A]s much energy as possible, both traditional and renewable, should be produced at home to create jobs and strengthen national security. Wind energy is a free resource, and it's abundant in many places around the country ... [A] ...


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Portland Press Herald: 'Congress should extend PTC for clean energy, jobs'

Posted: 27 Dec 2012 Tom Gray, Consultant

The Portland (Me.) Press Herald today joined dozens of newspapers from coast to coast in calling for an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), saying in part, "If we are serious about developing domestic energy, we should look beyond a single source, even if, like gas, the source is plentiful and relatively inexpensive."

 

Added the editorial, "For decades America has had a bipartisan energy policy that promoted domestic energy sources that reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Oil and gas companies take advantage of federal incentives to tap into sources that would otherwise be too expensive. There would be no American nuclear power ...


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Los Angeles Times: Congress 'must renew' wind incentive

Posted: 26 Dec 2012 Tom Gray, Consultant

The Los Angeles Times today endorsed an extension of the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), saying the incentive "is creating jobs and helping wean the country off fossil fuels."


The newspaper's editorial noted that the credit has long had bipartisan support, called opposition to it "backward thinking," and said "the lame-duck Congress must renew the [PTC] before it, and its powerful public benefits, are gone with the wind."


The PTC is an incentive that reduces taxes on the operators of wind farms and leaves more of the money they earn from electricity sales in private hands, helping to attract private investment not ...


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Public opinion watch: Danish survey finds neighbours can learn to love wind turbines

Posted: 26 Dec 2012 Tom Gray, Consultant

This article by Tom Rowe is cross-posted from the European Wind Energy Association blog.


A new Danish survey on people living close to wind turbines shows that four out of five people feel there are no downsides to the experience – and 23 % of those surveyed became more positive towards the turbines within one year of installation. In addition, 59% of respondents answered “neither positive nor negative” to the question of whether their attitude changed over one year of living with the turbines in their midst.


The nationwide analysis, carried out by an independent consultancy, was based on interviews with 1,278 people living ...


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Ontario tribunal turns down anti-wind appeal

Posted: 26 Dec 2012 Tom Gray, Consultant

Ontario's Environmental Review Tribunal has rejected an anti-wind appeal against Pattern Energy's South Kent Wind facility, according to a Huffington Post article by environmental attorney Dianne Saxe.

While wind opponents argued that wind farms are a threat to human health, the tribunal found no proof of the allegation, Saxe said.  Interestingly, one appellant contended that since health symptoms appear to result from annoyance, wind farms should not be allowed in locations where they will annoy someone.  Noted Saxe, "After all, how can mere science deny his feelings? ... Fortunately, the Tribunal did not find this science-free argument persuasive ... "

(Because wind turbines ...


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Fact check: Refuting Gramm's wind power myths

Posted: 26 Dec 2012 Tom Gray, Consultant

The appropriately titled "Distortions of Wind Power" by Phil Gramm in a recent Wall Street Journal does exactly that: distorts the facts about wind power and the production tax credit (PTC).
 
The opinion piece recycles many of the anti-wind groups' greatest myths in its assault on wind power. Now more than ever, telling the truth about wind power and the PTC is needed. The following facts allow us to clear the air about wind power.
 
1) The production tax credit is a tax incentive, not a handout. Federal tax incentives similar to the PTC have helped all of our domestic energy industries grow and produce the energy that our economy needs to function and prosper.

2) The PTC reduces taxes on the operators of wind farms and ...


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Latest calls for PTC extension: bipartisan group of lieutenant governors, Energy Sec. Chu

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 Carl Levesque, Consultant

Calls for an immediate extension of the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy continued to reverberate around the nation in recent days, with pro-PTC messages coming from a bipartisan group of lieutenant governors and the U.S. Secretary of Energy.

The coalition of lieutenant governors took action by sending a letter to Congressional leaders in order to let their voices be heard. Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) brought together her peers from Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Rhode Island and Washington to round out the show of support for extending the wind PTC.

“The wind energy industry is not only a source of renewable energy, but it is also ...


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Fact check: Study on turbine lifespan 'just more anti-wind propaganda'

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 Tom Gray, Consultant

This article by Julian Scola is cross-posted from the European Wind Energy Association blog.


The anti-wind energy Renewable Energy Foundation yesterday [December 19] published an “anonymously peer-reviewed” study by wind energy critic Professor Gordon Hughes (author of ‘The myth of green jobs’ and ‘Why wind energy is so expensive’) claiming that the economic life of wind turbines is 10-15 years rather than the 20-25 years stated by the wind industry.


Given that the author and publisher have a history of attacking wind energy and the fact that they do not say who peer-reviewed the study, perhaps one should not ...


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Fact check: CFACT's Driessen wildly off base on bird claims

Posted: 24 Dec 2012 John Anderson, Director of Siting Policy

The Washington Times recently carried a wildly inaccurate column by Paul Driessen of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a fossil-fuel-funded group, on wind turbines and bird fatalities. Most importantly, Mr. Driessen's numbers for bird deaths were drastically inflated.

 

Wind farms are not a major source of bird mortality. A leading avian biological consulting firm, WEST Inc., recently reanalyzed the bird mortality rate at wind farms on behalf of the American Wind Wildlife Institute (AWWI) and presented the findings at the


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