Michael Giberson
From The Hill’s Energy & Environment Blog:
A group of military veterans pressed congressional Republicans on Thursday to renew a tax credit for the wind industry that their party’s standard-bearer, Mitt Romney, has vowed to end.
The veterans, who are all employed by the wind industry, secured meetings with staff for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman…
The two elements of half-hearted policy substance mentioned in the article are both suspect: “jobs for veterans,” and “reduces dependence on foreign energy.”
Over the last decade the domestic oil and gas production industry added twice as many jobs as the 37,000 jobs the wind industry claims expiration of the PTC will threaten. The only “foreign energy” we import in any quantity is petroleum, excepting some power and natural gas from Canada, and the wind power subsidy has approximately nothing to do with how much petroleum we import.
On the other hand, increasing domestic oil and gas production actually is reducing “dependence on foreign energy,” including imports from OPEC members and other sources, and even including power and natural gas from Canada.
Using military vets to lobby for wind power tax breaks? I guess some K Street lobbying genius imagined using vets would help the industry get a bit of face time with Republican lawmakers who would otherwise rather meet with representatives of some other special interest group. Don’t our military veterans deserve better than to be made into poorly-informed lobbyists for wind energy?
What’s next, retired firefighters, grizzled ex-cops, harried emergency room nurses?
Why not just round up some starving orphans and have them come plead Congress, “Please, sirs, may I have some more … subsidies for wind power?”