Act now: Support wind power; end the nuclear tax credit

November 2, 2012

Regardless of what happens in next week’s election, afterwards the current Congress is going to meet in a lame duck session and try to grapple with major federal tax, budget, jobs, and deficit issues. And they’re going to be looking for savings—both real and imagined—wherever they possibly can.

We’ve got an easy way for Congress to support tens of thousands of American jobs, and to reduce future budget deficits by billions of dollars. And our plan will also help prevent radioactive poisoning of our nation while building a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future.

Tell Congress below: End the nuclear power tax credit, renew the wind tax credit!

Background

While wind power itself dates back centuries ago, the era of modern industrial-scale wind power is only a couple of decades old, and owes its incredible surge in use (wind is the fastest-growing energy source in the U.S.) in part to a tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour for new wind generators.

But that tax credit has always had to be renewed nearly every year, thus being held hostage by a sometimes hostile Congress, making private investment in wind uncertain, and actually has held back the level of wind power we could have. And right now, the wind tax credit is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. It needs to be renewed, and for a lot more than one year, to support the burgeoning wind industry and the tens of thousands of jobs it generates.

Meanwhile, almost no one (outside of the utilities that intend to use it) realizes that nuclear power has a similar tax credit available for new nuclear reactors. Except that their tax credit, established by President Bush’s 2005 energy bill, doesn’t expire every couple of years—it covers new reactors brought on line by 2021. The credit covers the first eight years of generation by the first 6,000 megawatts of new nuclear power (or about six new reactors). But the language is ambiguous and can be read to allow the same credit for 6,000 MW at a time, meaning that many more reactors could receive its benefits (and could mean that the credit itself could actually last until 2029!).

The nuclear tax credit is capped at $125 million per year per reactor (given reactors’ much greater size than wind turbines, a much larger amount than any wind farm could get). Thus, for six reactors, this tax credit would deprive the federal treasury of $750 million per year—billions over its lifetime, and the credit could even get extended.

Why should nuclear power’s tax credit last more than a decade, when wind power’s tax credit must be renewed every couple of years? That makes no sense. Why should dangerous, dirty and expensive nuclear power receive that kind of support from taxpayers at all? It shouldn’t.

If we’re going to create a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future, we need to adopt policies that move us closer to that goal. Right now, Congress is on the verge of going in the opposite direction. The wind power tax credit is in danger of not being extended, while the nuclear tax credit is safe and sound. That needs to be reversed, but it won’t be unless we all raise our voices now. Please act.

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