We discussed a side issue last week in the 2012 presidential campaign, which may have an impact in some key battleground states: wind power.
While the wind production tax credit obviously won't carry the kind of weight as jobs, economic growth, or health care, it's become an interesting point of contention between President Obama and Mitt Romney in states like Iowa and Colorado, where even Republican policymakers believe the GOP presidential hopeful is being short-sighted.
Obama was in Colorado yesterday, speaking not far from a wind turbine manufacturing plant, driving the point home.
For those who can't watch clips online, Obama said:
"At a moment when homegrown energy, renewable energy is creating new jobs in states like Colorado and Iowa, my opponent wants to end tax credits for wind energy producers. Think about what that would mean for a community like Pueblo. The wind industry supports about 5,000 jobs across this state. Without those tax credits, 37,000 American jobs, including potentially hundreds of jobs right here, would be at risk.
"Colorado, it's time to stop spending billions in taxpayer subsidies on an oil industry that's already making a lot of profit and let's keep investing in new energy sources that have never been more promising. That's the choice in this election."
The issue is every bit as relevant, if not more so, in Iowa. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) said this week he felt like "it was just like a knife in my back" when he learned Romney opposes the wind energy tax credit Grassley has helped champion.
This issue isn't going away, nor should it.
The estimable Michael Grunwald had a great item on this earlier today.
Before President Obama took office, the U.S. had 25 gigawatts of wind power, and the government’s “base case” energy forecast expected 40 GW by 2030. Well, it’s not quite 2030 yet, but we’ve already got 50 GW of wind. We’ve also got about 5 GW of solar, which isn’t much, but is over six times more than we had before Obama. Mitt Romney has suggested that wind and solar are “imaginary” sources of energy, but they can now power 15 million homes, and their industries employ more than 300,000 Americans. That’s real.
On Thursday, Obama was in Colorado, a big wind state, talking about wind. On Wednesday, Romney was in Iowa, another big wind state, not talking about wind. But the media, for a change, were talking about wind, because Republicans in Iowa have criticized Romney’s opposition to tax credits for the wind industry. I would also point out, and not only because The New New Deal is coming out next week, that Romney and his party opposed the Obama stimulus bill that revived the wind industry and the rest of the clean-tech sector from a near-death experience. As I’ve written before, wind turbines the size of 747’s were rusting in the fields after the financial collapse of 2008; after Obama signed the stimulus, wind companies began pouring billions of dollars back into the U.S.
Grunwald added that recent advances in American clean energy have been "remarkable," due in large part to the president's investments.
Incidentally, why would tax credits that have enjoyed bipartisan support for years suddenly find themselves under attack by Romney, especially given that two critical swing states want the policy to continue? It may have something to do with the fact they're now "a real threat to the fossil-fuel status quo."
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In answer to your question, very simply, because Romney has to be on the opposite side of Obama. It doesn't have to make sense... just show the base you're different from the President.
In that case...Obama should just come out totally against clean energy...and also against health care for everyone, women's rights, gay marriage and world peace...just for starters. Then maybe we could get something done in this country! ;)
He tried that in the compromise on the debt ceiling talks - that's how WE got our credit rating lowered, remember?! The GOTP only see 1 thing, there's this "black guy" in the "White House" and they will use every opportunity to stick it to ALL OF US in order to get him out! Now do you understand....
Gobama 2012!
I love it that the Tea Party and other extreme right folks have forced Romney to pander to them and take positions that he never took or would have taken as Governor in MA. It helps undecided moderates and independents lean to Obama. It's unfathomable that the Romney team doesn't seem to see this, but they don't seem to, or they are too afraid to offend the base.
As for wind energy, the tax credits need to stay in place, at least for now. If they don't, we will lose many jobs here in IA. Last fall I got to climb a 100-meter turbine (yes it was awesome), and now I fear that the two technicians who guided us will be out of work thanks to people like Romney. There is no way that oil companies should get subsidies and loopholes if the wind industry gets nothing.
I wonder if the shareholders of Exxon, BP, Shell etc. are enjoying their profits as much as they used to, now that global warming is really starting to bare its fangs, and the trillions in agricultural losses, storm losses and inundated cities are coming into view. We injure our grandchildren in order to pamper our children. There is no tragedy of the commons greater than the sewage we've made of the very air. Man is powerful, but with power must come great responsibility, or tragedy looms. Greed must not be allowed a seat at the planetary table.
Yes, yes they are. If they weren't they wouldn't be funding the climate change denial industry.
“They don’t understand,” Branstad said. “You’ve got a bunch of people that have put that website together that are bunch of east coast people that need to get out here in the real world to find out what’s really going on.”
awesome
Have Republican tell the tea partiers that the Republicans are a bunch of northeatern elitists.
Watch heads explode.
Enjoy and repeat.
How much has BIG OIL/COAL been sucking on the teet of government via the WELFARE that they receive? And for how long? And how much profit are they raking in? How about the climate change that we're all experiencing - intense heat, droughts, more intense storms, greater flooding?
While I get that the sheeple are waiting for the second coming; frankly I live in the real world an am so NOT wanting to see another Katrina devastating the lives of others! It's time for US to start shifting toward alternative sources of energy - we've all got to change our habits in order to change our planet and hope that WE are NOT too late!
I drove through Iowa last weekend. And by God those wind mills are majestic! But it was obvious that some of them were broken. Iowa, let's get them fixed.
And keep up the good work Obama, and get that clean energy to eclipse the oil/gas/coal!
math teacher - when you drive past a wind farm, you will generally see a couple of turbines that are not spinning like the rest. They have regular maintenance and testing schedules, for one, and a unit can't run during some of the testing or maintenance. It is also possible that the system operator needs 45 MW to match load, so at 1.5 MW per unit maybe only 30 out of 40 turbines in a field will be running.
I am a veteran who is going to a community collage on the post 911 bill. I picked the renewable energy program because I believe that we need to get off of oil/coal and that renewable energy is the wave of the future. I was told by my instructors that there will be jobs when I graduate but not in the state of Wisconsin where I live because of Governor Scott Walker's hostility to the renewable energy industry. We need leaders who support the future and not pander to the policies of the past. That is why I am supporting the president.
Just a comment about Obama's Rallies in Colorado yesterday. I attended the Colorado Springs one, and in a town generally thought to be thoroughly red, about 4200 people showed up and stood out in the blazing sun for 3 hours just to hear him speak! Romney sent his bus around and held a rally about 10 blocks away. They flew Bobby Jindal in to speak. 200 of the usual Tea Party dolts showed up for his talk. Same thing happened in Pueblo. Rob Portman was sent there. Same 200 or so flamers. But 3200 people showed up for the Obama Rally. I think there is much more support for Obama out there than the media is letting on.
Time to remind the public that there are two sorts of talented and skilled people in our midst--the ones who choose a path that enriches them, and the ones who choose a path that enriches us all. Sometimes the rich forget that they are not the only the group of talented and skilled people out there. The other achievers who were not motivated by money, are just doing other things. Behaving like you rule the world, that your values are the only ones that matter, and that no one else is smart enough to figure out your tactics and end game is foolish.