Federal Policy
Hands down, the American people support the development of clean, affordable, homegrown wind power. Recent polls consistently show that nearly nine out of ten voters – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents – believe increasing the amount of energy the nation gets from wind is a good idea. That's because wind power doesn't just generate electricity. It powers economic development. It adds a new source of steady income to family farmers' and ranchers' bottom line. It opens the doors of factories previously mothballed. It sends clean, home-grown energy to our homes and businesses, while protecting family budgets and small businesses from volatile price spikes. No wonder Americans want more wind power.
According to the Bush Administration's U.S. Department of Energy report, "20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply," wind can play a major role in meeting America's increasing demand for electricity, while supporting 500,000 American jobs. Having 20% of the nation's electricity come from wind power is feasible with today's technology, the report found, but the right policies will need to enable the industry to grow rapidly.
AWEA seeks the following federal level support to grow demand for wind power:
Predictable tax policies
The wind industry seeks long-term tax policies, lasting more than just a few years, to provide consistency and market certainty. The federal renewable energy production tax credit (PTC) – the primary financial policy for the wind industry since its inception in 1992 – has been extended mostly in one- and two-year intervals, and even allowed to expire on occasion. More information on how predictable policies will improve investment in the wind industry is available in AWEA's PTC fact sheet and in the American Wind Power brochure.
Current status: Under present law, the PTC provides an income tax credit of 2.2 cents/kilowatt-hour for the production of electricity from utility-scale wind turbines. This incentive was created under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. The PTC is set to expire on December 31, 2012. Additionally, through Section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, wind project developers can choose to receive a 30% investment tax credit (ITC) in place of the PTC. For projects placed in service before 2013, at which construction begins before the end of 2011, developers can elect to receive an equivalent cash payment from the Department of Treasury for the value of the 30% ITC. More information is available in AWEA's summary of the Section 1603 program.
On November 2, 2011, Representative Reichert (R-WA-8) with Representative Blumenauer (D-OR-3) introduced a bi-partisan 4-year PTC extension bill, H.R. 3307. AWEA is working with congressional supporters to introduce a PTC bill in the Senate as well and continues to urge Congress to take immediate action to extend the PTC for four years.
Specific to the community wind sector, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) has proposed a bill to replace the renewable energy production tax credit with a 30 percent investment tax credit for community wind projects. AWEA supports this credit, which would be in place through 2016 and would allow community wind projects of less than 20MW to utilize a credit that is in place for distributed wind, geothermal, and solar projects.For more detail, please see the AWEA Community Wind Working Group's proposal for this bill.
Strong national renewable electricity standard (RES)
A renewable electricity standard (RES), also known as a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) is a policy that sets hard targets for renewable energy in the near- and long-term to diversify our electricity supply, reduce pollution, conserve water and save consumers money. Today, 29 states have renewable electricity standards and seven states have renewable energy goals, but an RES does not exist at the federal level. More information is available in AWEA's national RES fact sheet.
Current status: In the 112th Congress, Senator Klobuchar (D-MN) has introduced S. 559 and Senator Udall (D-NM) has introduced S. 741, both of which call for the establishment of a 25% RES by 2025. To view the text of these bills, please search by bill number through the Library of Congress' THOMAS database. In previous Congresses, national RES proposals have been passed by the Senate on three occasions and by the House of Representatives on one occasion.
Recently there have been proposals to establish a clean renewable electricity standard (CRES). A CRES would establish mandatory targets to obtain a certain percentage of our nation's electricity from renewable and other clean energy sources. Any CRES policy must include a structure and targets that deploy wind energy generation above a business-as-usual scenario. Also, a CRES policy should allow state renewable or clean renewable standards to go above and beyond the targets established at the federal level.
Favorable transmission policies
The U.S. Department of Energy has identified transmission limitations as the largest obstacle to realizing the economic, environmental, and energy-security benefits of obtaining 20% of our electricity from wind power. Currently, almost 300,000 megawatts of proposed wind projects, more than enough to meet 20% of our electricity needs, are waiting in line to connect to the grid because there is not enough transmission capacity to carry the electricity they would produce. An upgraded grid would allow plentiful domestic sources of renewable energy to be put to use powering our homes and even our vehicles, reducing our fossil-fuel dependence as well as energy prices. More information is available in AWEA's Building a Modern Power Grid and Transmission and Consumer Savings fact sheets, as well as on the transmission and grid integration page.
Current status: On July 21st, FERC approved Order 1000 which reforms transmission cost allocation. In the ruling, FERC addressed two of the three biggest transmission infrastructure issues — regional planning and cost allocation. Rather than imposing new cost allocation rules and planning requirements that would apply nationwide, the final rule allows them to be developed on a regional level pursuant to general guidelines and principles outlined in the rule. All FERC-jurisdictional transmission providers, including RTOs/ISOs, will have 12 months from the effective date to submit compliance filings showing how they comply or will comply with most of the proposed requirements and principles. See AWEA's press release.
Prudent siting policies
Resolving wind power project siting issues is an important part of expanding wind energy development. The principles applied to wind energy siting issues must promote efficient, fair and open permitting processes at the federal, state and local levels. Project siting guidelines must address wildlife and habitat issues, military and non-military infrastructure, and community concerns. Given all the potential benefits of wind energy development, the wind industry's impacts should be considered in context with other forms of energy production and treated accordingly during the policy making process. More information is available on AWEA's siting policy page.
Current status: The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), as part of the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), has oversight of regulations governing the development of renewable energy projects on public lands, but their policies and regulations can also have direct impacts on development of private lands. While the FWS' mission is to protect wildlife and their habitats, DOI has multiple missions, one of which is to promote renewable energy development on public lands.
On February 8, 2011, FWS released two draft documents regarding the siting of wind turbines: Draft Voluntary, Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines and Draft Eagle Conservation Plan Guidance. These guidance documents significantly deviate from the consensus recommendations that AWEA, along with states, wildlife conservation organizations, scientists, tribes, and federal officials, worked together to develop as part of a Federal Advisory Committee (FAC). AWEA submitted comments on the Wind Energy Guidelines and comments on the Eagle Conservation Plan Guidance on May 19, 2011. AWEA summarized its comments in this press release.
On July 12, 2011, FWS released a revised version of the Wind Energy Guidelines in response to the public comments received and held a day and a half meeting to get feedback from the Advisory Committee and the public. AWEA submitted comments on this revised version on August 4, 2011 and summarized those comments in this press release.
On September 23, 2011, AWEA again submitted comments on the latest and likely final revised draft of the Wind Energy Guidelines released by FWS on September 13. The latest comments lay out AWEA's position on several remaining key issues, many of which echo positions that were taken by the full Advisory Committee, including Committee representatives from the conservation community and states.
