Newly-Released Romney Energy Plan Eliminates Wind PTC; Republicans Remove the Tax Credit from National Party Platform\
DES MOINES - U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, wind developer Rob Hach and corn farmer Bruce Rohwer released the following statements after learning that Governor Romney's energy plan unveiled today continues his call to eliminate the Production Tax Credit for wind. Earlier this week, GOP leaders decided to remove an extension of the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) from their draft party platform.
The GOP's decision to drop the wind PTC from its draft platform follows remarks by former Governor Mitt Romney saying he would allow the tax credit to lapse. The wind PTC also would be allowed to expire under vice presidential candidate and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan's budget plan.
Statement from Senator Tom Harkin
"Given his supposed economic expertise and his claim to focus on job creation, it is puzzling that Governor Romney and Republican leaders advocate for the elimination of the wind production tax credit, which supports up to 7,000 jobs across Iowa and more than 75,000 jobs nationwide. This is not a partisan issue. The PTC helps create Made-in-America energy and supports American manufacturing. That's why the vast majority of Iowans support the PTC. Governor Romney's stance on the PTC illustrates what is at stake in this election - an election where we can choose to go back or move forward with an economy built to last."
Statement from Wind Developer Rob Hach (Alta, IA)
"Mitt Romney's plan seems to be written by his big oil billionaire contributors as it continues to call for showering billions in subsidies and tax breaks for oil and gas companies, while seeing no real role for renewable energy. Corn and wind are strong sources of renewable energy, both of which are plentiful in Iowa.
"Thanks to the Obama Administration's strong support for investing in the clean energy economy of the future, and specifically the wind production tax credit, wind energy is a national success story for Iowa. Romney's Energy Plan, following his comments he would end the wind tax credit, does not see wind as capable of contributing meaningfully to our energy independence. I invite him to Western Iowa to see how the wind industry is supporting up to 7,000 jobs here, revitalizing many of our small towns and providing farmers suffering in this drought with a new source of reliable income."
Statement from Corn Farmer Bruce Rohwer (Paullina, IA)
"As a farmer who has seen the promise of alternative fuels up close, I am deeply disappointed by Mitt Romney's Energy Plan that just fuels our continuing addiction to oil instead of investing in the alternative fuels of the future. In fact, the words 'ethanol' and 'biodiesel' appear absolutely nowhere in his document. 83,000 jobs in Iowa are tied to the biofuels industry. President Obama's sincere support for ethanol and biodiesel has given the nation a diversified energy portfolio. Imports of foreign oil are at their lowest levels in 16 years. Mitt Romney's disastrous energy plan would halt all that progress in a flash. If he truly cared about achieving energy independence by 2020, he'd recognize and embrace the renewable energy sectors that Iowans, on a bipartisan basis, know have led to more uses of homegrown energy and less on imported foreign oil."
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