Green Leaf Report

I’m a little surprised at some of comments I’ve received on my recent wind energy posts.  The engineer in me cringes at the description of the technology as “useless.”  In the past decade or two I’ve seen some pretty lame applications of technology, and wind energy just doesn’t fall into that category in my mind. Anything that’s designed to kill a person more efficiently - well, yuck.  Anything that’s intensively designed to give a better Superbowl viewing experience - pretty lame. Anything that’s designed to specifically not pollute the air we all breathe - not so lame.  And anything that’s designed to to try help keep our economy from a significant breakdown - keep on trying, maybe we can make it work.

Against the ideas that companies are only in the wind power market because of tax credits and subsidies, well, I can’t speak to the comments from other countries, but I can say that in America, to get the effects of a tax credit (such as the PTC), the company must first have a revenue stream related to the technology.  I don’t see a government give-away of money; I see the recipient of the revenue not having to pay quite as many taxes.  This isn’t a welfare industry- it’s a developing marketplace that deserves government support.  The alternatives of remaining dependent on fossil fuels are just too dangerous.

We can ask - why should renewable energy get this special treatment?  But it isn’t special- various other industries are already getting plenty of tax credits.  From the R&D credits that multi-billion dollar technology companies get to the various tax credits across the oil and gas industry.  We’re a rich nation; we can afford to offer tax incentives to alternative energy producers.  There’s no good alternative to alternative energy.