The federal wind PTC should expire since it has morphed from an ill-designed temporary subsidy for a purportedly “infant industry,” into an inequitable tax hand-out
Over the past few months, wind advocates have argued for the eighth extension of the federal wind Production Tax Credit (PTC), scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Contrary to popular rhetoric, the wind industry is no longer the infant industry it was when the federal wind PTC was first enacted in 1992, but one comprised of 50,000 megawatts (MWs) of nameplate capacity, representing close to a five-fold increase since 2006. The federal wind PTC no longer represents a subsidy needed to jump start a nascent, but promising industry, but instead, has devolved into a classic case of “rent seeking” by a well-established industry seeking to maintain profits through a generous tax subsidy.
