[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 159 (Tuesday, December 11, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7716-S7718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WIND ENERGY TAX CREDIT
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, I come to the floor again to
urge my colleagues to extend the production tax credit for wind energy.
I would like to note that on the heels of Senator Durbin's comments
about China, we wish the Chinese energy industry well, but we do not
want to outsource our wind energy jobs to China needlessly. We are on a
path to do so.
I see my colleague from Iowa here, Senator Grassley, who I know will
speak later on the wind production tax credit, but it is going to
expire in less than 1 month from now--December 31, to be specific--if
we do not act. That means we are 1 month away from pulling the rug out
from under an industry that is currently playing a key role in
revitalizing American manufacturing, creating jobs, and powering our
Nation. We are literally 1 month away from ending a credit that
supports tens of thousands of workers right here in the United States.
Each day that we wait to extend the PTC, we risk losing more good-
paying American jobs. We also risk doing away with a credit that is a
major contributor to the success and development of our Nation's wind
industry. This credit has helped companies leverage billions of
dollars' worth of investments and created thousands of made-in-America
manufacturing jobs.
If history is any guide, allowing this critical tax credit to expire
would be disastrous. The expiration of the PTC in 2000, 2002, and 2004
led to massive drops in wind energy installation. Already in my home
State of Colorado this year we have seen hundreds of layoffs across the
Front Range due to our heel-dragging on the PTC.
Each time I discuss the PTC on the Senate floor, I highlight a
different State to show the vitality of the wind industry in that
particular State, how this important credit has created jobs for that
State's economy. Today I am here to talk about Iowa, America's
heartland and the homeland of the PTC.
In Iowa wind power is no longer an alternative source of energy. In
fact, Iowa has become the Nation's No. 2 producer of wind energy,
providing close to 20 percent of the State's electric power. Its
potential is not even close to being fully tapped. Iowa's wind
resources could someday produce up to 44 times the State's current
electricity needs.
Let me share some specifics with my colleagues. Nearly 3,000 turbines
spin statewide in Iowa, and Iowa is home to various manufacturing
facilities that produce wind turbines and components. The industry
employs nearly 7,000 Iowans, half of whom are located at manufacturing
facilities all across the State.
Take, for example, Pocahontas County. We can see the map of Iowa
here. There are a total of 216 wind turbines that have been constructed
in Pocahontas County. When all turbines are
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at full taxable value, they will contribute an estimated total of
almost $190 million to the total county tax base. This means additional
revenue for local budgets and additional money for investments in
schools and critical community projects.
Iowans know the possibilities and potential a continued investment in
wind energy holds for their future. However, I wish to underline again
that if we do not act, good-paying jobs will continue to be lost and an
industry that is critical to our energy independence will be hit very
hard.
This is simply unacceptable. Already Siemens Energy is laying off 615
workers in three States, including Iowa. The company Siemens has
acknowledged that difficult market conditions are due to congressional
inaction on the PTC.
My colleagues from Iowa, Senators Grassley and Harkin, have been
standing with me to fight for the renewal of the production tax credit.
Senator Grassley is known as the father of the wind production tax
credit. He led the charge some 20 years ago to establish this credit,
and I applaud him and Senator Harkin for their work in the renewable
energy sector and their dedication to extending this important credit.
They know the PTC is a win for Iowa and a win for the United States.
That is why it is so important--beyond important--to extend the PTC as
soon as possible. The PTC equals jobs, and we ought to pass it as soon
as possible.
As my colleagues keep telling me and we hear from the American
people, there is no reason to outsource these jobs. There is no reason
to outsource energy production, and there is no reason to damage a
growing industry that is helping America become energy independent.
Congress needs to pass an extension of the production tax credit today.
We can't wait any longer.
Let's create jobs and build the clean energy economy of the future.
Let's extend the wind production tax credit and let's do it now. It is
that simple. The production tax credit equals jobs. Let's pass it ASAP.
Again, I wish to acknowledge my colleague from Iowa, Senator
Grassley, who has been a leader in this important policy area for the
last 20 years.
Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum
call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, first of all, I had an opportunity to
hear what Senator Udall of Colorado had to say about Iowa and my
participation, and I thank him very much for his kind remarks.
This year Senator Mark Udall is the champion of people speaking about
the wind energy tax credit. I have spoken a few times, but he has
spoken for every State that has a wind energy business. He has spoken
many times more than I have, and I wish to compliment Senator Udall
from Colorado for doing that.
I think it is a foregone conclusion that after 20 years' of
investment of taxpayer money in what we call the tax incentive for wind
energy, and with the industry just about becoming a mature industry--
and there are different points of view within the industry, but in just
a few years it will be starting to phase out--this wind energy tax
credit can go away because it will be a mature industry much as the
ethanol tax credit went away at the end of last year. So with this
tremendous investment, it seems to me it would be a shame not to
continue it so we can get to maturity, and then in a sense ratify the
decision of the good investment of taxpayer money that has already been
made.
So today it is my privilege to join my colleague, Senator Udall of
Colorado, on the floor of the Senate to discuss the importance of wind
energy and the need to extend the production tax credit for wind. I
appreciate Senator Udall's commitment to the production tax credit for
wind energy. As I have said before, but I wish to say it again, he has
come to the floor many times during the past several months to
highlight the importance of wind energy in the various States. He has
been a real leader on this issue.
As Senator Udall has said, I have been a longtime supporter of the
wind energy tax credit beginning with my authorship of the first wind
production tax credit in 1992. At the time, I have to confess I didn't
see coming, for my State or for the Nation as a whole, the big deal it
has become not only in the production of wind energy and Iowa being No.
2 in the Nation, but also the component manufacturing that goes on in
most every State involved in wind energy, including my own State.
Particularly, I didn't foresee, at a time when most of our talk about
exporting jobs is actually exporting jobs, and in my State, at least
from two countries, Spain and Germany, we have been able to import
jobs--or I should say import the ability to create jobs through foreign
investment--for the component manufacturing. So it has been a success
in so many ways.
Maybe one other point that ought to be emphasized at this time: Some
Members--and maybe more Members in the other body--seem to be more
cynical about any sort of investment in green energy because of
Solyndra and other places where taxpayer money has gone in the way of
grants and then there has been immediate bankruptcy, resulting in a
waste of taxpayer money. There is absolutely no benefit from the wind
energy tax credit unless energy is actually produced. So it is not
going to be one of those situations where through taxpayer money,
through a tax incentive, money is going to some company and not reaping
the benefits of it, the end result in this case being the production of
wind energy.
The production tax credit for wind is working and should be a part of
the effort in Washington to get more Americans working. Nationally, the
wind energy industry supports 75,000 jobs. There are more than 400
manufacturing facilities nationwide supplying wind components. Thirty-
five percent of all new electricity generation added during the last 5
years was from wind, and this happens to be more than from coal and
nuclear combined. Today, 60 percent of a wind turbine's value is
produced in the United States, compared with just 25 percent in the
year 2005.
As I have said so often, my home State of Iowa is a leader in wind
energy production and component manufacturing. Nearly 20 percent of
Iowa's electricity needs are met from wind energy, powering the
equivalent of 1 million homes. Almost 3,000 utility-scale turbines in
Iowa generate lease payments to landowners, worth $14 million every
year. Iowa is behind only Texas nationally in terms of installed wind
capacity. The wind energy employs more than 6,000 Iowans. These jobs
are at risk because Congress has so far failed to extend the production
tax credit which is set to expire at the end of the year.
In fact, hundreds of Iowans employed in wind energy have already been
laid off because of slowing demand over uncertainty of tax credits, and
there will be more laid off in my State except in one city where they
are manufacturing components to go to Canada for use in wind energy in
Canada. Certainty about tax policy and affordable energy, then, are
factors for economic growth and getting unemployed workers back on the
assembly line.
As much energy as possible--both traditional and renewable--should be
produced at home to create jobs and strengthen national security. Wind
energy is obviously a free resource, and it is abundant in many places
around the country. I suppose we could say wind is abundant every
place, but at speeds that make the production of energy from wind cost-
effective.
In my State, most of these facilities are in northwest Iowa where the
wind averages about 14 miles per hour compared to going diagonally down
to the southeast corner of the State where it averages about 8 miles
per hour. So if there is enough constant wind, this is very definitely
a free resource.
Wind is also a homegrown resource. The electricity it generates is
produced on local farms for local customers and often adds investment
value to the community. A clean, renewable source such as wind is not
dependent on faraway countries with leaders, in the case of petroleum,
for instance, who happen to be so hostile to the United
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States even as they take our energy dollars and maybe use those against
us. That is why there is broad support for extending this worthwhile
policy.
Legislation in the House of Representatives to extend the production
tax credit has 119 cosponsors, including 25 Republicans. In August the
Senate Finance Committee, with a bipartisan vote, passed my extension
of the wind energy production tax credit amendment I offered at that
particular time.
The Governors' Wind Energy Coalition and the Western Governors'
Association have called for an extension of the production tax credit.
The Western Governors' Association is an independent organization
representing Governors of 19 States, and current membership includes 13
Republicans and 6 Democratic Governors. So there is pretty broad
bipartisan consensus among Governors that this ought to be extended.
I was pleased to join a press conference a few weeks ago with Senator
Mark Udall and over 40 military veterans representing Operation Free.
They were visiting Capitol Hill to meet with Members of Congress,
encouraging Congress to extend the wind production tax credit.
The wind energy production tax credit was created to try to level the
playing field with coal-fired and nuclear electricity generation. The
production tax credit for wind is available only when wind energy is
produced. There is no benefit for simply placing the turbine in the
ground. It is a tax relief that rewards results, and that is much
different than failed taxpayer-funded grants and loans made since 2009
when a lot of that money went to companies that are now bankrupt.
Those who want to do away with the wind energy tax incentive don't
seem to mention that other forms of energy have received far more
generous tax incentives for many decades longer than the wind energy
industry. Oil and gas and nuclear power all received longstanding
Federal support. I wish to emphasize, because I believe I read
someplace, that one of the opponents of the wind energy tax credit
being extended comes from nuclear.
Do my colleagues think we would even have a nuclear industry in the
United States since the 1950s or 1960s if it weren't for the Price
Anderson Act that supports it as kind of a super--or an insurer of last
resort? It would never have developed, and it is still in existence.
Isn't it a little bit intellectually dishonest to say that wind should
not have the tax incentive when other industries wouldn't even exist if
they hadn't had it already?
If we are going to have a discussion of which industries merit
Federal support and which industries don't, the discussion needs to be
intellectually honest. If we are having that discussion, everything
needs to be on the table, not just wind energy. Can you think of 60
extenders that are going to sunset at the end of this year? Only one--
wind--seems to be attacked right now.
This extension deserves a place in our year-end package of tax
extenders to help give confidence investors want and employers need to
keep and hire workers.
There is no reason to exacerbate the unemployment problem by failing
to extend this successful incentive. America's security in the short-
and long-term depends on a robust effort to develop domestic energy
sources.
Before I leave the floor, this can be done by the extender bill all
by itself being passed or it can be, as we hope, that President Obama
and Speaker Boehner have some sort of framework for us to put meat on
that framework so we do not go over the cliff and have this bill be a
part of it. When that whole fiscal cliff debate is about jobs, we do
not want to forget about these 75,000 jobs that are in wind energy. A
lot of these jobs have already led to some layoffs. We could bring
those people back to work pretty fast.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Manchin). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. JOHANNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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