KTAB in Abilene reported that “Sweetwater fights to extend wind energy tax cuts”. The story quotes the city’s mayor, Greg Wortham, pushing for Congress to pick winners and losers by extending federal tax credits to do what the free market will not: support wind energy jobs. In his argument, he’s no different than any other big-government advocate and it’s a shame.
The Abilene Reporter-News ran a story headlined: “Local wind tower manufacturers complain about Chinese pricing, sign petition.” This story is truly ironic in that it details a whole bunch of people complaining that “the Chinese government uses subsidies to push wind towers into the U.S. market.”
Wortham is again quoted saying “You can go and fill in the blank with any industry, from cars to shoes, and it’s the same issues of the alleged under pricing of the Chinese.” The story reports that Wortham emphasized the “lack of federal incentives for wind energy as a cause for concern that wind tower manufacturing may slow domestically.”
So we have people of an industry that exists due to “federal incentives”, which are nothing but subsidies, complaining that it is unfair that other countries also subsidize their wind energy industry! And then, Mayor Wortham turns it back saying we don’t really need to take that argument as seriously as we do the possibility that the U.S. might stop doing the same.
This story stands on its own. It needs no more caustic or indignant comment from me.
