The PTC (Production Tax Credit) for Wind Energy

A reader comments on my post on the alarming report predicting the future of fossil fuels and renewable energy, “Regarding your comment about the cost of wind (which is as low $0.02 per kWh in some rare circumstances), sounds like time to take away the PTC.”

The $0.02 figure only exists in certain small pockets of the US where demand is especially low and supply is especially high. The PTC (or something like it) is needed to continue the expansion of wind–but not forever. We’ve been subsidizing the oil industry, the most profitable business sector in the history of humankind, for the last 90 years. The PTC can be shut off far sooner than that.