IER President Thomas Pyle published an op-ed in the Washington Examiner yesterday on the issue of the production tax credit for wind energy.
“The Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy is fast becoming the zombie of taxpayer nightmares. Every time you think this special interest giveaway is dead, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and his alliance of subsidy-hunting policymakers conduct a legislative séance and conjure it from the great beyond.
Just before recessing for the month of August, the Senate Finance Committee approved a plan extending tax incentives for wind and other renewables. Smarting from his recent challenge from a Tea Party-backed insurgent, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch seemed quick to forget its lesson as he supported the PTC extension. Now that he’s safe, he’s free to go back to his big-spending ways for another six years.
Congress has been supporting wind production since at least 1978 on the premise that wind is an infant industry that needs just a few more years of mother’s milk – i.e. taxpayer handouts — to be cost-competitive with more affordable and reliable sources of energy.”
WASHINGTON D.C. — IER President Thomas Pyle issued the following statement upon today’s release of the House Oversight Committee report, entitled “A Dismissal of Safety, Choice, and Cost: The Obama Administration’s New Auto Regulations.” The investigation — led by Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) — reveals how White House officials misled the American public and circumvented federal agencies in rulemaking for fuel economy standards. According to the report, the administration engaged in strong-arm, politicized negotiations with automakers designed to appease environmental extremists.
“Ideologically-driven activists in the Obama administration ran roughshod over the automotive experts at the Department of Transportation. The Issa Report raises serious questions about the Obama administration’s concern for public safety, not to mention the fact that the politicized regulations pushed through by White House officials will price almost 7 million drivers out of the car market,” Pyle noted.
“This report is disturbing, but not surprising. The Issa Report reveals the degree to which Obama’s czars will have blood on their hands by reducing auto safety to pursue an extreme ideological agenda. The administration should be ashamed of colluding with green radicals to bypass normal regulatory protocols. In the end, Americans are worse off, and our highways are less safe.”
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.
