Fact check: Bryce omits mention of fossil fuel subsidies

In his latest [misguided] attack on renewable energy, Robert Bryce of the Manhattan Institute incorrectly characterizes the 1603 tax credit program extension as a Congressional bailout. Bryce conveniently forgets to mention that our government's permanent subsidies for fossil fuel generation greatly outweigh the small, short-lived incentives provided for wind energy. Wind energy is being forced to compete against fossil fuels that have received hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies so far, and the subsidies for fossil fuels continue to outpace the incentives awarded to renewables. These subsidies create an unfair playing field that is strongly slanted against wind energy, when rational policies would instead encourage renewable development to account for the major negative public health and environmental externalities of fossil fuels and the positive energy security and economic development benefits of renewable energy.