Tell Congress to Extend the Production Tax Credit for Wind Energy
The US wind energy industry depends heavily on the Production Tax Credit (PTC) in order to make building wind farms financially feasible. The PTC provides a 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) tax credit for the first 10 years of operation for large-scale projects. Last year, the PTC was extended but for only one year, which isn’t long enough to have a lasting impact on the development of wind energy projects because of the length of time it takes to permit and build these projects (years). We need a long-term extension of the PTC in order to truly advance the development of wind energy.
Click here to visit the Green America website and tell your congressional representative to pass a long-term extension of the PTC. Don’t forget! Your voice matters + every kilowatt-hour counts.
Why does it matter? Wind energy needs to the PTC in order to:
- Grow as a source of clean energy
- Contribute to energy independence in the US
- Provide green jobs to American workers
- Avoid air pollution that comes from coal and natural gas
- Avoid the nasty processes related to securing coal and natural gas (like mining and fracking)
- Avoid greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change and result in:
- Extreme weather events, causing deaths + property damage
- Worsening allergies + asthma
- Heat waves + more resilient diseases
- Droughts, which affect our food systems
- Fires, causing loss of homes + firefighter deaths
- Impacts to animal populations around the world
- Destroyed natural beauty, like coral reefs
- Less reliable weather (which threatens our favorite activities – like skiing!)
- and, sadly, climate change affects our daily lives in many more ways – check out Climate Reality Project for more information on the effects of climate change. We know the causes: greenhouse gas emissions, which come from using dirty energy. Supporting the PTC is one way you can help. It’s not too late to do something.
For more detailed history/background on the PTC, read up on the Union of Concerned Scientist’s website.
