In a letter to House and Senate leadership, the chairman and vice chairman pressed Congress to approve a multi-year extension of the renewable energy production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC) as soon as possible. The most recently passed extension expired last year.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad told Congressional leaders that the recent Wind Vision report highlighted the value of near-term policy support to prevent a slowdown in the industry which would include the loss of manufacturing to foreign markets.

The leaders of the 22-member bipartisan governors’ coalition urged Congressional leaders to act promptly to extend the renewable energy production and investment tax credits.

They advised Congress that without policy support, the operation of wind energy will decrease and the domestic wind manufacturing sector will weaken.

The governors said: “Our assessment of the Department of Energy’s recently-released Wind Vision report is that the domestic wind manufacturing industry is likely to stagnate over the next decade without the PTC. We anticipate that wind energy will be truly competitive with traditional energy sources soon given innovation in the industry.”

They also emphasised wind energy’s various public policy benefits, in a bid to offer justification for near-term tax incentives.

“We believe it is important to recognise all the public policy benefits of wind energy, including a diversified energy portfolio, public health benefits, domestically-sourced energy, and others. We are also concerned that thousands of manufacturing jobs could be lost without stable federal policy.”

Tax credits have contributed to the healthy growth of the American wind industry, and the governors warned that this was now at risk.

“These gains are at risk today because ongoing federal policy uncertainty continues to hamper the further development of the nation’s wind industry.”