“Big wind’s complaint that the language reneges on a previous deal is entirely unfounded. The so-called ‘deal’  AWEA is trying to preserve … was a backroom negotiation between big wind and Obama-era IRS lawyers to craft guidance that went well beyond the statute. Congress is finally taking corrective action.”

“According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the GOP bill will save taxpayers $12.3 billion in PTC-subsidies over 2018-2027. … [T]he GOP tax bill is headed in the right direction on wind energy development. But if the goal was to simplify tax legislation, the GOP should go further and repeal the PTC altogether.”

The GOP tax bill dropped last Thursday and it sent shock waves through the wind industry. Turbine makers Vestas and Siemens saw notable declines in stock value and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) blasted Republicans for reneging on a “tax reform deal” already in place.…

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

Study: Wind Projects lead to an Increase in Suicides

“Green Energy” Fails Every Test

Wind is an Irrelevance to the Energy and Climate Debate

Wind Power: A Fraud Promulgated by Fools based on a Fantasy

‘Completely perverse’ wind energy subsidies are not reducing emissions

The “Clean Power Plan’s” False Health Claims

Pruitt Is Right To Withdraw Obama’s ‘Clean Power Plan’

GOP US Tax Bill Overhauls Energy Taxes

4.5± Miles Deep Geothermal Project in the Netherlands

Invenergy VP slanders real estate wind expert

Jacobson sues authors of peer-reviewed critical energy paper

A Deceptive New Report on Climate

The Missing Science from the Draft National Assessment on Climate Change

EPA Stops “Sue & Settle” practice with environmental groups

Letter to Pruitt re Endangerment Finding (with Scientists’ signings)

EPA Announces New Advisory Boards

Superior teaching video about Climate Change

NASA satellite spots cause of unprecedented spike in atmospheric CO2

Australian Submission on Climate Change Policies

Excellent: Interview with István Markó (re Climate Change)

The UN Admits That The Paris Climate Deal Was A Fraud

Greed Energy Economics:

‘Completely perverse’ wind energy subsidies aren’t reducing emissions

GOP Tax Bill Overhauls Energy Taxes

Invenergy VP slanders real estate wind expert

The True Cost of Wind Electricity

‘Home grown’ claims of renewable energy industry questioned

Ratepayers paying too much for electricity

The Real Cost of Offshore Wind

Wind PTC: Excessive Benefit Demands Repeal

Local Residents Shouldn’t Subsidize Wind Turbines

Jacobson sues authors of peer-reviewed critical energy paper

Turbine Health Matters:

Study: Wind Projects lead to an Increase in Suicides

The “Clean Power Plan’s” False Health Claims

Important health decision revoking a wind permit

U.S.…

“A major new variable to estimate the social cost of carbon [SCC] is the positive side of CO₂ emissions and atmospheric concentrations, which promote plant growth and economic activity…. A negative value for the SCC creates a new, better term: SBC, or social benefit of carbon.”

“Will RFF hold an open debate with critics of Obama’s SCC in the months ahead? Or will RFF continue to circle the wagons? Scholarly integrity demands the former, while persuading its funders to be realistic toward the tiring Malthusianism of catastrophic climate change.”

Resources for the Future (RFF) has launched a project to (re)estimate, post-Obama, the social cost of carbon (SCC), defined as “an economic tool used to quantify the societal benefits of reducing —or conversely the damages of emitting—one ton of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere.”…

“Market conditions back in 1992 no longer exist. Big wind no longer needs the Production Tax Credit, and certainly cannot justify the extraordinary benefits received [3.5¢/kWh pre-tax]. Retaining the subsidy in light of lower installation costs and increased production serves only to further distort the market and bestow a bounty on big wind that far exceeds what 1992 lawmakers could ever have envisioned.”

The American Wind Energy Association’s latest market report touts an industrial- wind-energy construction pipeline of 29,634 megawatts, that, if all built, will bring the US installed capacity to nearly 115,000 MW.  Installed capacity stands at 85,000 MW today.

You can bet that all (or most) of the new megawatts will meet the Obama/IRS requirements for full-tax credit eligibility. As we’ve written before, the Production Tax Credit ‘phase-out’ was little more than a 5-year extension of the PTC after Congress looked the other way while the IRS implemented its own definition of the phase-out.…