The PTC is a credit used by businesses to expand their renewable electricity generation capability and provide jobs and expand the market for renewable electricity.

• The Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) is not a cash handout from the government. Instead, it is “a per-kilowatt-hour [federal] tax credit for electricity generated by qualified energy resources” – and only applicable to businesses who are already successfully generating power. Thus, it has the effect of leaving more of the money from sales of wind-generated electricity in the private sector. (Department of Energy, http://bit.ly/sPVfSX).

• According to a study from Navigant Consulting, with no PTC extension, “total wind-supported jobs will drop by nearly half, from 78,000 in 2012 to 41,000 in 2013” – a loss of 37,000 jobs. (Navigant Consulting, http://bit.ly/rLbinZ)

• Navigant also concluded that without the PTC, private investment in wind would drop sharply. With no PTC extension, “total wind investment will drop by nearly two-thirds, from $15.6 billion in 2012 to $5.5 billion in 2013.” (Navigant Consulting, http://bit.ly/rLbinZ)

• The PTC works. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “In 2011, wind power was again (for the sixth time in seven years) the second-largest new resource added to the U.S. electrical grid in terms of gross capacity additions.” (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, http://1.usa.gov/PU0IpB)

• According to the leading wind energy trade group, the PTC has resulted in a 90% drop in the price of wind power since 1980, benefiting utilities and customers. (American Wind Energy Association, http://bit.ly/wys7NI)

• A group of 19 business and investment leaders have called for support of the PTC, including Starbucks, Levi Strauss, North Face, and New Belgium Brewing, among others. They note that allowing an expiration of the PTC is equivalent to “levying a tax on companies committed to buying American energy” and, “In today’s economic climate, a tax hike on American businesses buying American renewable energy is unwarranted.” (Ceres, http://bit.ly/SZdtaI)

• The PTC has bipartisan support from 118 members of the House of Representatives. One strong supporter of the PTC, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, recently noted that the PTC is just one of many energy incentives in the U.S. and added, “No single energy tax incentive should be singled out over others before a broad-based tax reform debate takes place.” (Sioux City Journal, http://bit.ly/TOaaPT)

• Senator Mark Udall, D-Colo. credits the PTC for local economic growth in his state. His website says, “The Production Tax Credit for wind has helped attract clean energy businesses to invest in the United States, including Vestas, which created almost 2,000 jobs in Colorado.” (Senator Udall, http://1.usa.gov/MywZBc)
• Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Iowa, has a story similar to Senator Udall’s. Congressman King highlights the PTC’s effects in his state, “Iowa was the first state to generate 20 percent of its electricity from wind. Now, wind supports as many as 5,000 Iowa jobs, and $11 million in annual land lease payments to Iowa farmers. Iowa wind has prompted $300 million in private investment in Iowa manufacturing facilities.” (Congressman King, http://1.usa.gov/ZS3Ud8)

• The PTC has strong public support as well. In a recent United Technologies/National Journal poll, almost two-thirds—64 percent—of those surveyed said that Congress should extend federal tax credits that encourage production of alternative-energy sources, such as wind, that are due to expire at year’s end. (National Journal, http://bit.ly/KRLSzx)

• Tax credits have been extremely effective policy tools to expand domestic energy production and develop new technologies, including, for example, shale gas.  U.S. government support for oil, natural gas, and coal totaled nearly $600 billion from 1950 to 2010, according to a study by consulting firm Management Information Services, Inc., (MISI) prepared for the Nuclear Energy Institute.  Many of these incentives have been permanent fixtures of the tax code for five or more decades. (http://www.misi-net.com/publications/NEI-1011.pdf)