Fiscal cliff deal disgrace: One-year extension of wind turbine tax credits included

The US Republicans should be ashamed for approving this enormous waste of taxpayers' money as part of the fiscal cliff deal:

A one-year extension of a key tax credit for the wind industry was included in the fiscal cliff deal Congress passed Tuesday.

The tax credit, which has been a major driver for wind development across the country in the past two decades, is worth 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of energy produced by new wind installations for their first 10 years of operation.

A White House news release confirmed that the tax-credit extension is included in the Senate package that the House also passed.

"Just simply, 30% of the value of a project is derived from the tax credit," said Florian Zerhusen, chief executive of WKN USA. The San Diego-based wind developer flipped the switch on two 3-megawatt turbines in the San Gorgonio Pass about 20 miles northwest of Palm Springs on Dec. 21, just days before the credit expired.

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There is more than enough of clean and affordable shale gas and oil in the US for the foreseeable future. Wasting money on expensive, unreliable and bird killing wind turbines is a disgrace!