“With the Department of Energy and the American Wind Energy Association regularly crowing that wind is cost-competitive with (or more competitive than) conventional generation sources, there is no justification for further subsidies. The wind training wheels have been on the bike since 1992. They have done their job and it is now time to remove them.”

As winter approaches, Congress is being overrun by wind industry lobbyists (again). Their annual year-end money dance has become routine as we have seen the 1992 energy production tax credit die more deaths than the proverbial nine-lived cat.

Just as routinely, we have become accustomed to picking up the newspaper on New Year’s Day to read that in the cold, dark holiday night, Congress has revived the production tax credit (again).

Over time, Congress has supported throwing additional taxpayer money at the expired or expiring production tax credit, often at the eleventh hour.…

“What about the more than 50% of Nebraska’s severe weather that occurs at night and with no regard for holidays and weekends? Does anyone expect NextEra employees to make up for the loss in radar resolution from the company’s wind power facilities?”

Since 2009, two Nebraska communities have been destroyed by tornadoes, the most recent in June, 2014 (in Pilger). Articles covering these disasters can be found here and here.

Needless to say, accurate weather forecasting is essential for protecting life and property. But what happens when wind turbines are placed too close to a NEXRAD [1] weather radar? We may know soon enough.

NextERA’s Cottonwood wind project (113.6 MW) proposes to site all of its 52 turbines within 2½ to 7 miles of the Blue Hill, Nebraska NEXRAD facility.…

“The PTC offsets the high price of wind energy, giving the false impression that wind is competitive with other resources. But with capacity factors under 30%, project operation costs likely exceed the average wholesale price of energy in most areas of the U.S. Wind only appears to be a ‘cheaper competitor’ because it’s subsidized to a point where economics have no meaning in the wholesale market.”

We learned this week that the Senate Finance Committee plans to mark-up a new tax extender bill. This news comes just seven months after Congress enacted the controversial $42 billion tax credit (HR 5771) giveaway. Apparently, the promise of long-term broad base tax reform has again been pushed aside in favor of short-term relief for select taxpayers.

Over the coming months, a tidal wave of lobbyists will descend on Capitol Hill with countless reasons for why their industry deserves special consideration.…

 “… the very principle of constitutional government requires it to be assumed, that political power will be abused to promote the particular purposes of the holder; not because it always is so, but because such is the natural tendency of things….”

– J. S. Mill (1861) [1]

The shifts in Congress toward Republicans in yesterday’s elections can be taken as a referendum by voters for less government and more freedom and prosperity. Yet Establishment Republicans have aided the growth of government mightily, and Cronyism is entrenched on both sides of the aisle.

Will the new Republican leadership, for example, extend the Production Tax Credit to help keep Obama energy policy alive? Or will they say, enough and enough with the repeated extensions from the 1992 massive tax break. (“After 22-years of tax credits, the business of big wind is no longer about energy production,” noted Lisa Linowes.…