Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition Pushes Wind Energy Production Tax Credit

In a letter to Congressional leadership, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber urged Congressional leadership “…to take swift action to extend the PTC before the end of this congressional session.” Governor Branstad is the chairman of the coalition and Governor Kitzhaber is the vice chairman.

"Thousands of jobs in the wind industry have already been impacted by the credit’s looming expiration and thousands more are at risk,” the governors wrote. “We urge you to take swift action to extend the PTC before the end of this congressional session.”

The governors pointed out that “[w]ithout a PTC extension, it is estimated that the U.S. economy will lose 37,000 wind industry jobs and the opportunity to leverage over $10 billion of private investment. Our states are already seeing these impacts.”

The United States has some of the best wind resources in the world,” wrote the governors wrote, “ but the lack of policy stability hinders the nation’s ability to develop them fully. Please support our states in the pursuit of economic strength, energy diversity, and consumer savings by acting quickly to extend the PTC.”

GWC PTC Letter Cong Leadership (final 11-9-12)

The Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition is a bipartisan group of the nation’s governors who are dedicated to the development of the nation’s wind energy resources to meet America’s domestic energy demands in an environmentally responsible manner — while reducing the nation’s dependence on imported energy sources and stimulating state and national economic development.

Through its multi-state coordinated efforts, the Coalition is engaged in several national initiatives: encourage sound national policy and legislation for the development and distribution of wind-generated energy; communicate and demonstrate the value and benefits of wind energy to consumers, energy companies and policy makers; share state best practices in wind and renewable energy policy development; create an environment of support for those who wish to develop responsible wind energy resources; and support development of infrastructure for the expansion of wind energy across the United States.

For more information, visit www.GovernorsWindEnergyCoalition.org.