Full Title: Subsidizing Big Wind: The Real Cost to Taxpayers
Author(s): Robert Bryce
Publisher(s): Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Publication Date: October 1, 2012
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Description (excerpt):
For two decades, the domestic wind-energy sector has enjoyed a lucrative subsidy known as the production tax credit (PTC). That tax treatment, which provides wind-energy producers with 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of electricity produced, expires at the end of 2012.
But the production tax credit is only one of the subsidies given to the wind industry. In addition to direct subsidies, the industry is given a de facto subsidy at the state level in the form of mandates for renewable energy consumption. Another indirect subsidy: the exemption that the wind industry has been given with regard to enforcement of federal wildlife laws.