Jennifer Granholm Pushes Boehner On Wind Tax Credits: ‘Mr. Speaker, This Is Your Lucky Day’ To Create Jobs
"Jennifer Granholm Pushes Boehner On Wind Tax Credits: ‘Mr. Speaker, This Is Your Lucky Day’ To Create Jobs"
Share:
Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm issued a forceful plea to House Speaker John Boehner yesterday: If you’re serious about creating and preserving jobs, support extension of the federal production tax credit (PTC) for wind.
In a wonderfully articulate editorial on her Current TV show, The War Room, Granholm urged Boehner to set aside ideology, extend the PTC, and provide consistency for businesses investing in this economically-valuable sector:
Mr. Speaker, of course you are right: We do need to create more jobs. So guess what — this is your lucky day. There’s one sector of the American economy that is losing jobs as we speak — and you can put a stop to it.
One simple solution is to pass the legislation that helps large-scale wind-energy producers compete against heavily subsidized fossil fuel. The Production Tax Credit has bipartisan support in Congress. It has the full support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The PTC has supported hundreds of large-scale wind projects around the country, helping drop installed costs 90% in the last few decades, attract a broad array of manufacturers, and create 75,000 jobs. In fact, the wind industry supports 7,500 direct and indirect jobs in Boehner’s home state of Ohio, according to the Environmental Law and Policy Center.
Unlike permanent tax credits for oil and gas, the PTC expires every couple of years — setting up a “boom-bust” cycle in the industry and threatening private investment.
Leading companies are already cancelling manufacturing plants and preparing to lay off workers. The wind industry says it could shed as many as 37,000 jobs if the credit expires at the end of this year.
Even with the support of more than 350 companies, a bi-partisan coalition of the nation’s governors, and local conservative politicians around the country, Congress has failed to extend this vital tax credit. Meanwhile, they’ve voted to preserve $24 billion in tax credits for the highly-mature oil and gas industries.
The wind industry has been pushing on this issue intensely. However, in trying to stay as non-partisan as possible, it has failed to hold Congressional leaders accountable. If more influential people like Granholm actually stand up and fight for the PTC, the political equation could still shift. Who’s going to step up next?
Watch Granholm’s entire editorial here:
FRONT
Boehner has produced enough hot air to drive several wind turbines.
Ms Granhom, this isn’t about job creation, it’s about driving a Black man out of the WH.
Look at the current rhetoric on oil drilling, for example. Even though we’re producing the highest daily output of crude in history, Republicans daily claim Obama is ‘restricting’ drilling. They know it’s an outright lie, but, as Mitch McConnell stated, their #1 priority is taking back the WH, not creating jobs or supporting alternative renewable energy sources.
Very well said! Wish more on the left would use such well-thought turns of phrase. It illustrates how obstructive to job creation the GOP has become. And we really need to show how much harm they’ve done if we’re to get the needed support in Congress. Let’s hold the republicans accountable for their failure to make any head-way on jobs.
Boehner talks about how proud he is to serve the American people as House Speaker but the truth is he is sold out to the tea party.
What a DICK, Ohioans should vote him out.
The reublicans are only half the problem. From my recent experiences with the PA legislators, the Democratic Party has lost the courage to to thuly offer an alternative vision for America. We are no longer the party of Kennedy; the party that helped put man on the moon. We are now the GOP-light, too lazy to try to educate the overall population on what the siutation really is or what the choices really are. It’s a disservice to those who ate inventing their hearts out to try to get us out of this energy mess.