Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) continues leading the charge on Capitol Hill to relieve taxpayers from the costly burden of subsidizing the wind industry.
When asked in a recent interview if the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy (set to expire at the end of the year under current law) would be further extended by Congress, Sen. Cramer replied, “not if I can help it.”
“The production tax credit, the wind tax credit as you call it, back in the 90s when they invented this atrocity, they assured us that they would never need an extension, that they just need a startup, just a little boost to get going, to be competitive in the marketplace,” said Sen. Cramer.
“And now of course, here we are decades later and they still are whining about it. It’s been a gross distortion to the market, to price, to innovation, frankly, in clean coal technologies, natural gas. All of those things. No, I’m strongly opposed to it,” he continued.
The statement from Sen. Cramer comes as Congress is reportedly considering a deal to extend the wind and solar tax credits as part of a broader Covid aid package.
In July, Sen. Cramer led a letter signed by 9 Republican Senators to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), urging him to oppose another wind production tax credit (PTC) extension.
Sen. Cramer’s opposition to extending the wind PTC is backed by a coalition of two dozen conservative and free-market organizations. As the conservative organizations highlighted, tax expenditures for the PTC were $5.1 billion in 2019 alone.
Prior to the previous one-year extension of the PTC, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that tax expenditures for the PTC would be $19.3 billion between 2019 and 2023. It was later estimated that the one-year extension of the PTC already granted by Congress last year will reduce tax revenue by an additional $2.1 billion between 2020 and 2029. This is a significant burden to place upon taxpayers to subsidize an industry capable of standing on its own.
Americans for Tax Reform applauds Sen. Cramer for his leadership to end this taxpayer-funded competitive advantage for wind generators that distorts energy markets and harms consumers.