Sierra Club launches 'Wind Works' campaign
New campaign advocates for renewing Production Tax Credit for wind
Today the Sierra Club launched “Wind Works,” a new campaign to advocate for renewal of the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy. The PTC, the group said, is a federal tax policy that helps level the playing field by providing the certainty the wind industry needs for continued growth.
“The 'Wind Works' campaign is the Sierra Club’s move to the next level, in advocating for renewable energy jobs and ensuring America transitions to a clean energy economy,” said Dave Hamilton, Director for Clean Energy of the Beyond Coal Campaign at the Sierra Club. “Congress is holding thousands of high-quality American jobs in their hands, but every day of uncertainty for the industry is causing more delayed projects and more layoffs. This campaign will ensure that lawmakers know Americans want clean energy solutions and that they won’t sit back while congressional inaction causes further job losses.”
The wind power industry currently supports 75,000 jobs across the country. Renewing the PTC will help sustain and create more American jobs while helping to protect public health by moving the country beyond dirty energy, the Sierra Club said in a news release.
Added the group, “However, the PTC is set to expire at the end of this year. Already, the failure of Congress to renew the tax credit has led to layoffs as companies delay or cancel plans for new wind installations and factories. If the PTC is allowed to expire, the American Wind Energy Association estimates that approximately half of all existing American wind jobs will be lost before the end of the year.
“Moving America toward a clean energy future will not only create new, high-quality American jobs, but will also yield significant public health benefits. Renewable energy like wind power replaces energy from fossil fuels that cause air pollution, which leads to heart attacks, asthma attacks and more than $100 billion in medical costs …
“The Sierra Club is putting significant resources behind the 'Wind Works' campaign to help America continue its transition to renewable energy. Through a variety of tactics, ranging from grassroots organizing to paid media, the campaign will work to ensure the wind energy industry continues to be a job creator, and to remind lawmakers that wind works: for the economy, for the environment, and for America.”
For more information about Wind Works, visit: http://www.sierraclub.org/windworks/
The PTC provides an income tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first 10 years of electricity production from utility-scale turbines. It is set to expire on Dec. 31 unless Congress extends it first. A recent study by Navigant Consulting found that extending the Production Tax Credit will allow the industry to grow to 100,000 jobs in just four years, while an expiration would kill 37,000 jobs within a year.
A House bill seeking to extend the PTC has 101 cosponsors, including 23 Republicans, while a Senate bill to extend it was introduced March 15 by seven Senators, including three Republicans. PTC extension efforts have received the endorsement of a broad coalition of more than 370 members, including the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Edison Electric Institute, and the Western Governors’ Association. A PTC extension also has the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Governors Association, and the bipartisan Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, which includes 23 Republican and Democratic Governors from across the U.S. A PTC extension has been endorsed by a number of newspapers across the country, including the Houston Chronicle, The New York Times, the Denver Post, the Daily Oklahoman, and the Toledo Blade.
Further endorsements of the wind energy production tax credit.
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