Wind Industry Subsidies Fail In Congress

[wacojoe]

...and thereby threaten to take the whole corrupt and dismally inefficient, rent-seeking Pack down with it. We should all stand and cheer —

The wind power industry is predicting massive layoffs and stalled or abandoned projects after a deal to renew a tax credit failed Thursday in Washington.

The move is expected to have major ramifications in states such as Illinois, where 13,892 megawatts of planned wind projects — enough to power 3.3 million homes per year — are seeking to be connected to the electric grid...

Wind proponents tried to tuck the tax credit extension, which provides an income tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the production of electricity from wind turbines, in legislation aimed at extending payroll tax cuts. But congressional leaders did not include it in that bill.

There is still a possibility the wind power tax credits could come through as a stand-alone bill or tied to other legislation. But Washington insiders say that is unlikely to happen before the election in November.

By then, the wind industry says, it will be too late to avoid massive layoffs and project delays, because wind projects slated for 2013 should already be far along...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,7153601.story

That was the good news, but the bad news is that the slugs will try their best to hurry through the worthless projects they have already started to tap the taxpayers for as much as they can before abandoning their eyesores where they stand, as they historically have done once the sustaining government subsidies play out, leaving giant brooding and broken hulks rotting in fields and hilltops everywhere.

...In order for developers to receive the expiring tax credit, they must have turbines up and running before year's end. As a result, 2012 is shaping up to be a banner year as developers race to complete projects.

But few such projects are slated for 2013. Developers say they either accelerated projects to be completed this year or pulled back because of uncertainty about the tax credit...

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[TxMusky]

The politicians just dont get it,every energy solution we have invented up to this point has limitations of some sort. Oil and Natural gas have been touted as running out, Windmills only work when the wind blows and have been linked with bird kills, Solar only works when the sun shines, Nuclear has devastating environmental impacts if something goes wrong that can last for decades afterwards not to mention the disposal of spent materials. It should be quite obvious that they are not taking a responsible look at these "green technologies" in a serious way, only paying back their campaign supporters and pushing an agenda. Having the taxpayers foot the bill to make something competitive is not what I would call necessary to our survival.

Point two. These wind turbines are very labor intensive to maintain. They require servicing just like an internal combustion engine as they have gearboxes and transmissions that require oils and grease that needs to be changed regularly. I have several friends that work for the wind turbine companies doing assembly and maintenance and are paid very well. The Chinese are building the generators and parts so cheap that American manufacturers can not compete with them, so that will be the next thing to get subsidized.

As usual, the prices to make the main ingredient are too expensive to make here, so Americans are again relegated to a "service role" to keep them running and change the fluids. Before we can be taken as a serious manufacturer of machines we will have to address the pay and benefits issue in order to compete on a global basis without government subsistence. We cant afford to compete with foreign suppliers head to head. The politicians seem to forget that prices need to come down on everything and especially the things that tax monies are spent on or we will keep getting further and further in the hole.

[Billy_Rightwing]

In an area to the south of us they have built hundreds of turbines and the Eco wackos are shutting them down because of birds and the power lines running from them are spoiling the scenery.

[TxMusky]

Billy gets it. It doesnt matter what "new and improved" energy source anybody comes up with, there is going to be a bunch of idiots screaming about it. Obozo is finding that out the hard way, his wind solar and other methods have drawn the heat from the same people who supported him. Screw em, just do what is cheapest and easiest to deliver.

[LawDog]

Gee whiz, you'd think we could just drill down to where Al Gore says the Earths core is millions of degees and use that heat to run steam turbines.......