The wind industry is failing to help itself.
E&E Daily reports:
Whatever happens on Election Day, members of the 112th Congress will have to return to Washington following their victory parties or concession speeches with a full slate of legislative business to complete before the year is over, including deciding whether to extend a suite of renewable energy tax breaks that are now scheduled to disappear after Dec. 31.
Expectations that the lame-duck session will be a busy one are growing on Capitol Hill, as activity is expected to soon wind down so members can focus on their re-election campaigns. But that doesn’t mean lawmakers are looking forward to the end-of-the-year rush, which will be accompanied by the bruised feelings that inevitably follow a hard-fought election season.
“I think there will be long nights and long weeks,” lamented Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) in an interview last week.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) was blunter in his assessment.
“I think most people look at the lame duck with dread,” he told E&E Daily, “because it’s going to be so consequential in terms of the issues that we’ll have to deal with. And it really is, I think, a sad commentary on how the agenda’s been managed that we have basically kicked everything to post-election in the lame-duck session”…
On the energy front, a variety of expiring tax provisions, such as the production tax credit for wind, are likely to attract the most attention on a crowded lame-duck agenda. The wind industry has spent much of this year arguing that an extension of its 2.2-cent-per-kilowatt-hour credit is vital to avoid layoffs by developers and turbine manufacturers, and the lobbying campaign is expected to continue throughout the year…
“an extension of its 2.2-cent-per-kilowatt-hour credit is vital to avoid layoffs by developers and turbine manufacturers…” With these plants having very few employees, and developers and manufacturers in this sector meaning basically nothing to the economy (other than public funds they waste on the way to bankruptcy), we can say goodbye without shedding a single tear.
The simple solution: ban lame-duck sessions of Congress with a Constitutional Amendment.
While we’re at it, limit terms of one per person (either house!), and abolish ‘retirement’ on the public nickel. Let their own constituents take care of them.
The term limits will prevent them all from being distracted by re-election campaigns.
Anybody who runs for re-election to either House must be either corruptible or insane; either way they shouldn’t be allowed to be there.