Tax "compromise" fucks over wind and solar to favor ethanol

[eridani]

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-vine/79771/how-the-tax-deal-could-throttle-the-green-economy

Some background. Back in 2008, Congress extended (yet again) tax credits for solar and wind producers, which now cover 30 percent of upfront costs. But when the recession made it tougher for firms to get financing, the credits were no longer working as advertised. So, in last year's stimulus bill, Congress converted the credits to flat grants. That seemed to do the trick: According to the Financial Times, two-thirds of all new solar projects and 85 percent of all new wind projects in the United States now rely on these grants. Trouble is, the grant program is going to expire at the end of the year. This frequently happens with tax support for renewables, and Congress usually just extends the program after a brief period of dithering.

But not this time. The tax breaks weren't included anywhere in the Obama deal. And so the solar and wind industries are now freaking out, warning that their companies are about to tumble off a cliff, shed thousands of jobs, etc. What's particularly galling is that the ethanol industry is getting its tax breaks renewed. As a clean-energy source, ethanol is highly dubious: Studies have found that the whole process can produce more heat-trapping CO2 emissions than regular old gasoline. But ethanol has a powerful farm-state constituency, and those subsidies have long been sacrosanct. (That may change in the years ahead, as Tea Party types like Jim DeMint have begun denouncing government support for ethanol, but, until anything actually comes of that, corn is still king.)

Granted, wind and solar aren't doomed yet. In the House, Earl Blumenauer has been calling attention to the situation, and it's possible that all those liberal Democrats who find the broader tax deal so repugnant could end up wheedling this small concession. (A one-year extension would cost $1.3 billion, or about 0.1 percent of the overall tax bill.) And it's not like Republicans are implacably opposed to the renewable tax credit; they've generally been on board ever since the program was first enacted in 1992.

That said, there's a deeper problem here. The renewable industry will have a tough time gaining a firm footing in the market if, every year or two, there's glaring uncertainty about whether Congress will continue to offer support. Wind and solar companies are having a difficult time making investment decisions, which may help explain why wind generation dropped this year, after a boom in 2009. (Oddly enough, this is one "economic uncertainty" argument you rarely hear Republicans make.) An alternative approach would be to extend the tax program for a longer period of time—or go further and pass a bill that requires utilities to get a certain percentage of their power from sources like wind, solar, or biomass. But the latter idea died in the Senate this year, so clean-energy producers are back to fighting for scraps—and now they may not get even that.

[ClassWarrior]

1. Christ...

NGU.

[Riftaxe]

2. We know where the corn comes from for ethanol, but

remind me again which countries leads the world in producing wind turbines and solar panels again?

Of course any subsidies for ethanol are a joke to begin with considering it's inefficiency. I guess the outrage is that instead of giving corporations tax credits to buy foreign manufactured goods, we are giving it to corporations for pursuing inefficient energy?

[Hannah Bell]

4. General Electric is the world's second-largest turbine manufacturer.

7/10th of the largest turbine manufacturers have plants in the US.

[boppers]

6. I don't know as much about solar, but wind is truly global.

US turbines depend on bearings from Europe. No US companies make them.

As far as the Ethanol scam goes, yeah, everybody knows its a lie, but for votes, they play the game.

[Hannah Bell]

18. i think you're mistaken, e.g.

http://www.ntnamerica.com/

http://www.timken.com/en-us/about/Pages/Locations.aspx

The Timken Company (NYSE: TKR, http://www.timken.com) keeps the world turning with innovative friction management and power transmission products and services, enabling its customers’ machinery to perform more efficiently and reliably....Timken is a member of the American Bearing Manufacturers’ Association and participates in the World Bearing Association Anti-Counterfeiting Committee.

Timken has over 15 US plants.



from a relative in the industry, the main factors = cost/reliability/post-installation service differences between turbine manufacturers

[boppers]

21. SKF and FAG are big, and GE *requires* SKF (at least from some vendors).

SKF has some US plants, but there are some SKF bearings that are import-only, especially on the larger gearboxes.

Timkin's been *trying* to break in, but hasn't done so universally... and bearing failure is a huge maintenance problem. (As in millions of dollars per large turbine, you can't fix that in the field.... You have to crane the package down, ship it, rebuild it, ship it back, crane it back, re-install it).

My husbandwife works in wind on the gearbox maintenance end (a higher end company), I asked about "Timkin" (Literally, my question was: "Hey honey, who is Timkin?", and the response was "Oh, the bearing company? Well.... Timkin <blah blah blah>"), and got a good 30 minute discussion, so thank you for that!

Your relative is correct, in the same way that US car production works. To paraphrase: "cost/reliability/post-installation service differences between car manufacturers"

edit: You are correct, my original statement is wrong.

[notesdev]

7. It's not just its inefficiency

it's the fact that giving over huge amounts of farmland to it is reflected in the price of food, not just domestically but globally. Which means that the primary real impact of our ethanol policy is to see poor people starve.

[avaistheone1]

9. +100

The support for ethanol in this bill is criminal.

[roody]

13. The corn grown in the farm states is mainly used to feed cattle.

People are already starving because of this practice.

[NickB79]

16. At least cattle feed corn produces beef and dairy

Turning that same corn into ethanol feeds no one.

[Hannah Bell]

3. archer daniels midland/cargill $$$$$$

[Laelth]

5. Using ethanol for fuel is a very bad idea.

But who's got the guts to fight ADM?

-Laelth

[MadHound]

8. Expect your food costs to go up

The more land that goes towards growing fuel crops means less devoted to food crops.

[avaistheone1]

10. That's a fact.

This is going to hurt families here at home and abroad.

Just another reason we need publicly funded elections badly. Get the freaking lobbyists out of Washington.

[SpiralHawk]

11. "Smirk." - RepubliCronies

[KharmaTrain]

12. All Roads Lead To Iowa

Nothing gets more applause and votes in Decorah or Spencer or Waterloo than a candidate standing up for farmers and the price of corn. Ethanol has been a political football in the Midwest for the past 35 years and politicians and this is another set-up for the 2012 election. The cards continue to be stacked against most alternative energy that could be the real catalyst of a future American economy but only if the big corporates decide so...and when. Ethanol has been a win-win for farmer...keeping corn prices high and giving them a new market to sell to. Any politician who has Presidential aspirations (or their party) will stroke big Ethanol.

[Evasporque]

19. My hometown in SD is ringed with stinky ethanol plants...

It brought in tons of money...people there think it is great....to have money again....so they elected republicans.

[Odin2005]

14. Ethanol is a scam to help Big Ag.

[lonestarnot]

15. Corn = Big Oil just because the corn is used as an excuse to say see we're gettig us off crude or

crudely depending upon your perspective.

[bullwinkle428]

17. So much for Obama's "green job" revolution.

[DeadEyeDyck]

20. K&R

[progressoid]

22. Sadly, cutting ethanol subsidies would run a huge industry off a cliff too.

The entire mess is dependent on tax dollars.

Not unlike much of the military industrial complex. It sounds great to cut their funding, but then what happens to the thousands and thousands of people laid off by those cuts?