Grassley argues for wind energy

Aug 8 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Christinia Crippes The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa

Sen. Charles Grassley left little room for doubt about where he stands on extending wind energy tax credits, which await action in Congress.

Grassley took up the issue Tuesday during two town hall meetings in southeast Iowa with passion and the no-nonsense rhetoric he is known for after nearly 32 years in the U.S. Senate.

"I'm the author of the wind energy tax credit of 1992, and there were people from outside the state came into Iowa and issued a press release that the Republican candidate for president was opposed to wind energy, and I felt it was just like a knife in my back, as the author of the bill, without even being consulted about it," he said during a town hall meeting at the Greater Burlington Partnership offices in Burlington.

The tax credit is an income tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity produced by utility-scale turbines. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said he supports letting the wind energy production tax credit expire.

"I think that it's perfectly all right to talk about doing away with this credit or that credit, but it ought to be talked about by a president of the United States that's Reaganesque and look at the big picture and say we need to have corporate tax reform," Grassley said.

Noting the U.S. has the world's highest corporate tax rate, Grassley said discussion of ending corporate tax loopholes and tax credits should be a part of a larger discussion on corporate tax reform.

He estimated the wind energy industry generates about 4,000 jobs in Iowa. There are about 75,000 people employed across the country in the wind industry sector, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Grassley said when he wrote the wind energy tax credit, he had no idea that Iowa would become second in the nation in producing energy through wind. Grassley also said he couldn't have guessed the wind energy industry would be bringing people from Germany and Spain to manufacture components in the United States while other companies outsource jobs.

"And then, would you think at a time of 8.2 percent unemployment there would be any question that you wouldn't want to lay off 4,000 more people in the state of Iowa and probably 25,000 people nationwide," Grassley said in Donnellson after being thanked by a representative of Siemens for all of his work on the behalf of wind energy. "But that's kind of what's at stake here, and when people come into Iowa and say it shouldn't be renewed and without consulting me, I consider that an insult. It just bothers me something terrible."

Grassley said he suspects Senate Republicans opposing the wind energy tax credit leaked the information that Romney supports letting it expire.

"I don't know who's behind it and I'm going to find out who's behind it, and expose them and tell them how stupid their policy is," Grassley said to conclude his town hall in Donnellson.

Grassley and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have stood up to threats to the ethanol tax credits. Like that time, Grassley is asking why one industry is being singled out.

"Why out of 60 things that sunset would you pick out wind energy to make a case for? Unless there was some ulterior motive behind it?" Grassley said. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."

Grassley said the tax credit is one of 60 tax credits and other tax legislation set to expire at the end of the year, but his Senate Finance Committee passed legislation last week to extend them for another year.

Grassley believes the tax credit extension will pass in the Senate but noted he did not know enough about what the House will do.