Dear Editor, If an economy actually needs wind energy, then backup power must be built. Right?
Where is that cost accounted for? If an economy actually needs wind energy and backup power is not built, blackouts will occur.
Depending on when it happens, what is the cost of a blackout? Where is that cost accounted for? If no backup energy is built, and no blackouts occur, then why do we build wind energy in the first place?
Mr. Taxpayer, after a brief involvement in the wind business, I became aware of the copious amount of subsidies in that business, tax credits in particular.
On one hand, tax credits are analogous to tax-free money. To an investor in the 50 percent tax bracket, the taxable version of the face value of a tax credit is double. To a high-income guy, this is huge.
On the other hand, local donations like fire trucks, ambulances or cash donations to schools or charities, touted by wind developers, are deductible expenses. Does this sounds like double dipping?
If you want to legally launder tax credits into tax-free cash, and also reset the depreciation clock, use tax equity financing, involving the “Equity Flip” or simply sell the project to someone who needs the tax credits more than you do.
Now you understand why wind projects are sold like commodities. It’s better than robbing banks.
If you had $400 million-500 million available in tax credits compliments of the productive citizens that do pay taxes, don’t you think you could afford several million in property taxes to buy your way into a community to build a wind farm to make all of this happen?
The final question here is: How much tax money are you willing to spend to give yourself a subsidy?
Doug Nelson, Wayne
