WASHINGTON D.C. — The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it would increase the value of the wind Production Tax Credit from 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour to 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, a change that increases the taxpayer cost by more than $500 million for projects placed under construction by the end of 2013. IER Senior Vice President Daniel Kish released the following statement in response to the IRS action:
“In one fell swoop, the IRS gave wind energy more than twice the amount President Obama wants for his proposed energy security trust in a single year. Not only has the wind lobby succeeded in pushing Congress to award the industry another ten years of taxpayer funded subsidies — totaling $12 billion — but now they have the IRS forcing taxpayers to pay even more to prop up energy they can’t use and don’t need. Just when energy producers are coming to terms with the bad investment that wind energy offers, the federal government is increasing the taxpayer-funded giveaways to special interests in the renewable sector.
Meanwhile, the White House continues to play sequester games and cancel White House tours, which cost $3,848,000 a year. Essentially, the cost of today’s action by the IRS could have paid for 130 years of White House tours.”
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.
