Koch Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) — who is deeply indebted to Koch Industries for more than $100,000 in donations — is outspoken against clean energy investment. Recently, he celebrated when the Senate failed to extend the wind energy tax credit in a 49-49 vote. However, he is celebrating the threat to 37,000 jobs in the relatively young industry, when the production tax credit is set to expire at the end of the year.
Even as the oil industry enjoys $4 billion in subsidies a year, Pompeo lamented the cost of the production tax credit, claiming the wind industry would be fine on its own:
“The program has been around an awfully long time and it’s time to let that industry stand on its own two feet. And I’m confident that they’ll do it,” he said. “There’s great, creative engineers and innovators in the alternative energy field, and I’m confident they’ll be successful.”
It now costs the government more than $1 billion a year to hand out 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of wind power — and enough is enough, says Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.).
“We’ve been subsidizing some of these industries with tax credits for multiple decades, and every time they get to the end of the line, they get within a year, they say, ‘If you just give me’ — fill in the blank — ‘one more year, four more years, that’s all I want. Just a little more time,’” said Pompeo, who is leading a charge against the PTC and other energy subsidies.
“What history would demonstrate is they would continue to come back to the federal trough and ask for more time yet again at the end,” he added.
History has shown that the three times the production tax credit expired, wind investments dropped. Meanwhile, Big Oil has benefited from 100 years of consistent tax breaks, even though the industry had a record-high year of $137 billion profits. And Pompeo, who benefits from these profits, has made clean energy his punching bag.
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insert cash, then pull the ring connected to the string in his back, he’ll repeat anything he’s told to say! But I’m not surprised, he’s just one in an army of stooges!
Still supporting 19th century technology, but apparantly, he’s getting paid to do it.
Pompeo is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Koch brothers. I live in Kansas and the campaign where he won was as dirty as it comes, also with threats to the other candidate. It was disgusting.
The Kochs own more people than I care to think about. They want to owwn the USA. They are two old fucks with nothing better to do than play and I mean play politics. They pull strings on most Repub lawmakers now. This is going to get worse. They will ruin anything that is our America and turn it into Kochland. The want the White House so bad they are drooling…handing out cash like drunken sailors. Fear these men. Vote Obama 2012 to keep these people from taking over our country.
Today, it was 106 degrees just north of here, and it’s only April. Yes, the temperatures are higher and higher each year, and this summer looks to be a whopper of a hell-fest while petroleum plutocrats cruise it out in airconditioned limos.
100 years from now, however, the Koch name will be one that competes with the Borgias for sheer corruption and blindness in the face of the obvious.
I am a recipient of a home Solar PV production credit here in Washington State. The production credit will sunset in 8 more years. However I often supply green power to the grid in the summer and lighten the load in the winter. The production credit allowed “me of modest means” to invest early and at a rate that will offset the savings others gained by waiting but only because folks like me invested early to help build up the talent base and infrastructure in the first place. The production credit gives me a return on investment of about 9.5%. (Find that on Wall Street, unless you are an inside trader.) It is in my back yard, I can fondle it! By 2020 a system like my capacity might well be had for ~$4,000 and my remaining investment at that time will be ~$4,000. Fair for all in my eyes.
The billions Mike Pompeo OKs for the ecocidal fossil industry disappear into the black world of corporations that do not even have the decency to pay taxes and from there largely into the pockets of the already rich, (and a few politicians of course, & add agencies, etc.) This at the cost to humanity of polluted air, water, dirt and seas. Stop profits from the pollution of the commons and you can have your tax credits IMO Mike. Green wins hands down on a level field! Fossil loses no matter what in the long run. The question remains, do “We” the People allow the Corpro/People to take down Earth’s Life Support Systems and a good portion of what tagged along with them, or do we Stop the profits from polluting the commons?
Leif, Wall Street is all inside trading, with the occasional Ponziform scheme thrown in. They buy politicians by the gross, in both the numerical and personality meanings.
(R-Koch), heh.
I imagine a $100,000 goes a long way in Kansas media markets. That buys a lot of trash talk about opponents. As long as this little man continues to tow the Koch line, the money will continue to pour in.
Hey Pompeo, Google Kansas and Dust Bowl. Here, let me help you get started with a little Kansas dust bowl history. That will be your future with climate change. I hope the Koch boys will still be generous when the plagues of drought and dust arrive.
Pay attention Kansas Farmers. A lot of you have built wind turbines on your land as a way of making some extra money.This guy does not have your best interests at heart.