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Other than Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan as a running mate, the big issue on the campaign trail this week has been U.S. energy policy.
President Obama wants to extend the wind energy tax credit that's set to expire at the end of the year. The tax incentive is opposed by many Republican lawmakers including his presidential opponents. During an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Ryan eluded to such tax incentives as a form of "crony capitalism and corporate welfare" and he essentially called green energy a "fad."
During campaign stops last week in Colorado and this week in the battleground state of Iowa, Obama has been touting the benefits of America's bourgeoning wind industry.
"America generates more than twice as much electricity from wind than when I took office," Obama said in the cornhusker state. "So my attitude is let's stop giving taxpayer subsidies to oil companies that don't need them, and let's invest in clean energy that will put people back to work right here in Iowa."
Since 2008 wind power output has jumped from 25-gigawatts to 50-gigawatts, or enough to now power 15 million homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association. The wind energy sector currently employs 37,000 workers nationwide including 7,000 jobs in Iowa and 5,000 in Colorado.Without the credit, the expansion of wind power would come to a halt and thousands of people could lose their jobs.
The tax issue in discussion currently grants wind energy companies a $0.02 tax credit for every kilowatt-hour generated. The tax credit will cost the federal government $1.6 billion this year.
Romney would let the benefit expire in an effort to limit government intervention and return to what he considers a more pure form of free-market principles. However, Iowa's Republican Governor Terry Branstad and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) disagree with Romney on this issue and are pushing to extend the credit.
The increase in both jobs and wind energy output is due in large part to President Obama's $800 billion economic stimulus package passed during his first months in office, which allotted $90 billion to clean energy investment.
According to Time magazine senior reporter Michael Grunwald, the Obama's stimulus bill, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was the most "transformative energy bill in history." Not only did the bill create the largest wind farms in the world, it created more solar farms and a state-of-the-art electric and lithium battery industry, says Grunwald in the accompanying interview, noting the vast details in his new The New New Deal.