For example, power from Montana"s Judith Gap wind
farm has been 0.5 to 2.1 cents/kWh cheaper than electricity from coal. So, a
large amount of the PTC incentive has been recovered in increased savings for
rate (tax) payers. By 2015 the credit will cease for that project. Then, the
savings from wind power will more than "repay" what has been "fronted" from the
PTC. Also, the overall power price is lower because less natural gas is used to
produce electricity when the wind blows. It's one thing driving down the cost
of gas used for home heating and power generation.
The PTC also levels an uneven playing field caused
by non-tax subsidies fossil fuels now enjoy. To make coal power generation almost
as clean as wind generation, we'd have to scrub more pollutants and sequester
CO2 from conventional power plants. That will add 2.5 to 5 cents/kWh to
electric bills. Romney ignores that cost while also opposing regulation needed
to achieve his "clean coal" plan. So which do you prefer: a five cent/kWh increase
in energy costs to subsidize Romney's clean-coal nirvana or Obama's 2.2 cent/kWh
PTC (that pays for itself) to incentivize wind-generated clean electrons?
Finally, Romney's belief that the private sector is
the best or only place to develop US jobs is passà ©. Subsidies by foreign
governments change that. They stack the deck in favor of their monopolies.
Thus, US industry must compete in a less-than-free market. That's the message
from Solyndra's bankruptcy--not the misleading disparagements of its loan
guarantee which Republican campaign ads portray. Here's what those ads leave
out.
When our government guaranteed $535 million in Solyndra
bonds, even Wall Street thought thin-cell solar panel manufacturing was a good
bet. Then the Chinese government pumped $30+ billion into Chinese companies
manufacturing silicon solar cells. It drove the price of silicon cells down.
That eliminated the price advantage Solyndra's thin-cell technology had when the
US guaranteed its loan. Thus Chinese subsidies ruined Solyndra.
Those subsidies also threatened other US
manufacturing until Obama slapped a tariff on Chinese solar panels. It's part
of prudent policy that has increased the US-made portion of wind turbines
installed here from 25% in 2005 to 60+% today; policy that "knows how" to create
jobs with subsidies that repay themselves; policy that leaves us better off now
than we were in 2005.
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