Dane Boswell

Govt. Politics.
Oct. 05, 2015

American Wind and Energy Association

Today's generation is more attuned to the economic and environmental benefits of
renewable energy than ever before. This high demand helps make the United States the
number one country in generating and delivering wind energy to its people. The
American Wind Energy Association or AWEA is leading the world in production of these
massive wind turbines we see popping up all over America(Winds of Change, 2015).
In 1973, a small group of engineers chose to completely remodel a 1930s-era, 20kilowatt wind turbine, and create a small business to sell these turbines. In 1974 the first
meeting was held and Allen O'Shea became AWEAs' first president of the board. Since
that time AWEA has reached an incredible 60,000+ mega watts of cumulative wind
capacity in the United States. That's equivalent to powering nearly 18 million homes. The
company operates over 550 manufacturing facilities and employs over 75,000 Americans
today (Community Wind, 2015).
In 2014, Congress allowed the Production Tax Credit or PTC to expire and has yet
to extend these critical tax credits. The PTC is a federal incentive that provides financial
support for the development of renewable energy facilities. The PTC must be extended as
soon as possible for as long as possible to prevent the clean wind energy resource from
falling off a cliff like it did back in 2009 from a 76% increase in wind energy production
that year, to a devastating 92% decrease the following year (Lydersen, 2013). The
Production Tax Credit has been such a big influence to the growth and development of

the renewable energy industry, and is why the United States is the most productive in the
world with enough wind energy produced annually for nearly 20 million American
families (Krauze, 2013).
"The PTC has enabled the companies like AWEA to make critical investments in
domestic manufacturing and the American workforce, driving significant cost
reductions," said AWEA Deputy Director of Industry Data and Analysis Emily Williams.
"We have utility-scale turbines operating in 39 states today, and if these trends continue
and stable policy is in place, we can see wind deployment in even more states. We call on
clean energy supporters in Congress and in the White House to work on passing a twoyear extension of these critical tax policies," said Tom Kiernan, CEO of AWEA in
February 2015 (Hill, 2015).
Now we fast forward to September this year, and a group of over 2000
organizations representing quite literally millions of employees, businesses and
community development organizations, signed their respective names to a letter and
calling on the US Senate and House of Representatives to act immediately on a
permanent extension of the expiring tax provisions (Hill, 2015).
Some influence that the AWEA and other natural resource interest groups possess
comes solely from state home and business owners. Some new data from the U.S.
Department of Energy's 2015 report, shows that a low-cost wind that is not subject to fuel
price risk can save some states like Montana, over $650 million dollars in electricity bills
through 2050. The same data also says wind energy can help the state avoid 11.7 million
metric tons in carbon pollution per year by 2030. I feel like that can be too much power
for one company in regards to natural energy solutions. For example: If the AWEA offers

a lower cost energy resource to a company, and they refuse, how much backlash does that
have on the company from individuals that support the natural resource?
I whole heartedly think this tax credit should become permanent. I have done
some research and found that wind energy is costly to maintain. Wind blows its hardest in
hard to reach places. In Texas, for example, the wind blows constantly and at high
velocities upon the southern mesas. The harvesting and transmission of this untapped
energy could spell a breakthrough in an energy resource that never ends. If the tax break
doesn't get passed, thousands of businesses, jobs, and research will seize to exist.
However, on the positive note about the PTC ending. Dead ending the wind
energy resource, may just open up a new path to an unforeseen and maybe even better
renewable resource that we just haven't discovered yet. Or maybe increase the focus and
research in areas we are already looking to expand, such as solar, water, and geothermal
energy. Nature doesn't stop producing energy, but power and nuclear energy plants will
eventually die out completely (Krauze, 2013).

Works Cited

Krauze, R. (2013, August 22). AWEA: Tax Reform Talks Provide Best Opportunity To
Extend PTC. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
Lydersen, K. (2013, March 7). Wind energy lessons from Illinois: Q&A with AWEAs
Rob Gramlich. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
Hill, J. (2015, September 16). Over 2,000 Organizations Call On US Government To
Extend Tax Provisions, Including PTC. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
Community Wind. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2015.
Winds of Change. (n.d.). Retrieved October 3, 2015.