Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Invenergy pushes wind turbine construction date back to 2015 thanks to GOP


The job-creating narrative of the Republican Party took a major blow after Chicago-housed Invenergy announced that it was pushing back its startup date for building 18 wind turbines on top of a Roanoke County mountain due to an uncertain future for wind energy government incentives.[1] The new target date has been delayed to 2015.

One of the main concerns of Invenergy is the future of the soon-to-be expired wind energy Production Tax Credit. According to the American Wind Energy Association, the tax credit of 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of power created has been an important subsidy in keeping the prices of producing wind energy down.[2] 

Also at stake are at least 75,000 jobs across the U.S.

The subsidies provided Virginia’s, and America’s, green energy sector has been one of the main reasons for contention among many within the Republican Party. These same politicians have, however, had no problem subsidizing the fossil fuel industry.[3]

In order to turn attention away from their blatant hypocrisy, GOP lawmakers have pivoted towards a “job killing” argument, arguing in effect that “green jobs” kill jobs in other sectors of the economy.[4] 

Notwithstanding the fact that the same argument can be made of fossil fuel jobs, GOP lawmakers have also had no qualms about cashing in on green energy subsidies for their constituencies.[5] Thus, the job killing argument is just as fallacious as the contempt GOP lawmakers demonstrate towards green energy subsides.

Nonetheless, Virginia must now suffer the economic and environmental consequences of putting off another clean energy installation due to a political party that has cut its legislative teeth on obstructionism and obdurate political behavior. This isn’t the first such instance nor will it be the last unless Virginians and Americans vote these kamikazes out of public office.

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