Guest Column appearing in Missoulian (MT) 10/19/12. http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/romney-would-cost-businesses-hobble-goal-of-energy-independence/article_abc2eb76-19f5-11e2-a934-001a4bcf887a.html
When Romney ridicules Obama's commitment to slow climate
change, he overlooks how excessive fossil fuel use causes sea level rise. Guess
Romney doesn't care if water swamps those off-shore islands where he stashes
his cash.
That
callous attitude is not the only flaw in Romney's "business" model. It leaves
US business stuck with unneeded energy costs while other countries rapidly
embrace clean technologies that don't have fuel and pollution control expenses
as a component of electricity price.
The European Union already has 94 gigawatts (GW) of
wind-generated capacity; China has 63 GW--ahead of the US (50 GW). Chinese
wind-turbine capacity will rise to 200 GW by 2020--enough to power 55% of US primary
homes.
By 2020, China will get 15% of its electrons from
non-fossil fuels; Denmark (already producing 32% of its electricity with wind
turbines) will increase that to 50%.
Eighty-three nations use wind power for commercial
purposes. The cheaper electricity there makes it even tougher for US businesses
already struggling to compete with cheap foreign labor.
Meanwhile, Romney and some Republicans propose to
hobble us further by eliminating the bi-partisan production tax credit (PTC)
for US wind projects. Several major companies want congress to extend the PTC.
They rely on a Navigant Consulting study. It estimates that extending the PTC to
2016 will result in 95,000 wind-supported jobs. However, killing the PTC will
result in the loss of more than 37,000 American jobs in 2013. If he knew how to
create jobs as he claims, Romney would not be waging war on wind projects.
The PTC on wind energy goes away when it is not
needed. That happens after a turbine operates for 10 years and installation
costs are covered. The credit has ranged from 1.5 to 2.2 cents a kilowatt hour
(kWh). However, those tax breaks actually
repay themselves by driving energy costs down.
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