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US Firms Race Fiscal Cliff To Install Wind Turbines
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that U.S. energy companies are racing to install wind turbines before a federal tax credit expires at the end of this year which could be lost as Congress struggles with new legislation to avoid the 'fiscal cliff.' 'There's a lot of rushing right now to get projects completed by the end of the year,' says Rob Gramlich, senior vice president at the American Wind Energy Association. 'There's a good chance we could get this extension, it is very hard to predict, but the industry is not making bets on the Congress getting it done,' Even if there is an extension there is likely to be a significant curtailment of wind installations in 2013. From 1999 to 2004, Congress allowed the wind energy production tax credit to expire three times, each time retroactively extending it several months after the expiration deadline had passed, but wind energy companies say they need longer time frames to negotiate deals to sell the power they generate. 'Even if the tax credit is extended, our new construction plans likely will be ramped back substantially in 2013 compared with the last few years,' says Paul Copleman. 'So much time has passed without certainty that a normal one-year extension would not be a game-changer for our 2013 build plans.'"
All this hot wind about tax credits... I think it will break soon. And this whole thing will blow over.
Rent seeking, meet regulatory capture.
The US Congress is just pathetic.
A perfect reflection of the people that voted for them. What's to complain about?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
A perfect reflection of the people that voted for them.
Actually, it demonstrably isn't. Some reasons why:
1. Gerrymandering. For example, the party that got the most votes won't hold the most seats in Congress come the next term.
2. This is a lame duck session. So it's actually a reflection of the electorate from 2 years ago, not the current electorate.
3. The "money primary", where candidates must impress potential donors to even have a chance of impressing the electorate, ensures that proposals that might hurt large donors are never even considered.
There are many opinions widely held by the American public that are nowhere near actually getting through Congress. For instance, a majority of Americans would approve the federal legalization of marijuana, but such a proposal has never even come close to getting a floor vote in Congress.
I am officially gone from
It's just another made-up name to mislead and / or scare the bejeezus out of people. Just like PATRIOT Act (patriot == good, cliff == bad). The world will still be here tomorrow no matter what happens.
has become the US Congress. Never have I seen so many get paid so much to do so little. They better wake up soon, otherwise a torch bearing mob may did it for them.
We need to push them off the physical cliff!
With their own torches that they'll use to set fire to stuff, so they'll have an excuse to arrest the lot.
We are all God's parents.
Everyone under the sun is racing to get deals done before the new year. It's not just one tax credit.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Wind power is and will be taxed like any other income. They're getting a break up front on capital expenses because policymakers have reasons other than private profitability to have secure domestic sources of energy.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Senate can't vote on a budget until the house gives them one. If they don't like what the house delivers is doesn't pass. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Section_7
Do you Gentoo!?
But is hydroelectricity worth a dam?
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
If the "torch-bearing mob" you're referring to was Occupy Wall Street, they didn't have any torches or pitchforks, they had signs and chants and meetings which clearly presented no physical threat to the banks. The New York police responded to them by:
- pepper-spraying them for the heinous crime of walking down a sidewalk
- beating them with batons
- In one case, running a guy over with a motorcycle, arresting him for being in the way, and then denying medical treatment of his broken leg
- Pushing them into the street and then arresting them for jaywalking
- In policing a planned march over the Brooklyn bridge, waited until as many as possible were on the bridge, then blocked both exits and arresting everyone in between
- Put an end to the protest by barging in at 3 AM to a public park, beating and kicking the sleeping people who didn't move fast enough, and destroying all the personal property that they could get their hands on
- In the aftermath, some of the people known to have been protesting were fired from their jobs
So that's why people avoid protest movements in the US: If it has a chance of changing something, it will be violently suppressed. In one of the related protests in other cities, the police repeatedly pepper-sprayed an 82-year-old woman who hadn't gotten out of the way fast enough, and ended up killing an Iraq War veteran (probably accidentally, but still).
I am officially gone from
http://www.ewea.org/blog/2012/12/study-on-turbine-lifespan-just-more-anti-wind-propaganda/
The report (link to report proper is in the page linked above) was put together by "The Global Warming Policy Foundation" - a known organization of AGW denialists. It speaks volumes that the only sites that reference the report as an authoritative source are other AGW-denying blogs and websites. Combined with the fact that the report you cite flies contrary to dozens of other reports and technical analyses, you should be really quite suspicious about an ulterior agenda.
=Smidge=
For what it's worth, I'm neither a Democrat or Republican - I have no dog in that fight. In my view, the correct way to handle redistricting is something along the lines of shortest-splitline or University of Illinois' mathematical districts.
I am officially gone from
"Democrats are incapable of seriously negotiating with Republicans,"
That because for the last several terms the republicans haven't been negotiating, just dictating. The only bills that have passed the house have been political bills written to kiss ass to their base electorate(or strategic attempts to embarrass the president) knowing full well that the democrats won't touch them. Fact is the democrats are fed up with their bullshit and have the last election to support their view. Until the republicans are willing to negotiate in good faith(not my way or the hi-way) very little is going to get done.
The republicans declared war on Obama before he was even in office. They barely acknowledged he was elected. And have systematically been compromising the government trying to get rid of him ever since. The republicans job was to run the country until the next election cycle. Instead they've spent most of their energy trying to embarrass the president. What do you call trying to unseat a legally elected and legally operating president during his term in office? /observation and a conclusion that already been done once with Bill Clinton.
Because the Ryan budget is a joke. It's a thumb in the eye that won't even solve the budget shortfalls.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem