Letter to Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid - Oppose Wasting Up to $9.4 Billion on Extension of Wind Production Tax Credit

Letter

Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Reid:

We write in strong opposition to extending the wind production tax credit.

The House of Representatives has not extended the wind production tax credit, and we agree with the House that this wasteful subsidy should remain expired.

The wind production tax credit has been in place for 22 years and wastes billions of taxpayers' dollars every year it is extended. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' decision to extend the wind production tax credit last year will cost taxpayers $6.2 billion over 10 years. Further, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the two-year extension proposed in the Tax Relief Extension Act of 2015 (S. 1946) would cost another $9.4 billion over the next ten years -- $5.2 billion for 2015 and $4.2 billion for 2016.

The "temporary" subsidy for wind was first enacted in 1992, but has been renewed nine different times since it first expired in 1999. According to the Congressional Research Service, from 1992 to 2014, the production tax credit has cost taxpayers $13.8 billion. In the last seven years alone, the wind production tax credit has cost taxpayers $7.3 billion -- more than $1 billion per year.

This expensive subsidy for wind creates an incentive for investors to build unreliable and unsightly sources of electricity, and distorts the market by giving wind an unfair advantage over other, more reliable and cost-competitive forms of electricity generation. Even after 22 years and billions of dollars of subsidies, wind only produces four percent of our country's electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and that's when the wind blows -- which is only about 35% of the time and usually occurs at night, when we don't need more electricity. The subsidy for Big Wind is so generous that at times, wind producers can give away their electricity and still make a profit.

Congress should refuse to extend this wasteful tax credit, and we look forward to working with you to resolve this issue.

Sincerely,

Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn)
Joe Manchin (D-W.V.)
Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.)
Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)
John McCain (R-Ariz.)
James Risch (R-Ida.)
Pat Toomey (R-Penn.)