View this email in a web browser.
Baucus acknowledges need for work on tax extenders — GOP senator
Providing the most prominent acknowledgement to date that comprehensive tax reform may not happen before the 113th Congress adjourns, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus last week told a private meeting of committee members that they likely would have to address a raft of temporary tax breaks in isolation next year, a senior Republican on the panel told Greenwire today. The Montana Democrat’s acknowledgement carries wide implications for wind energy developers, biofuels producers and building efficiency companies that rely on the temporary tax breaks known as extenders. [ read more … ]
Senators push for end to PTC, citing wind industry’s maturity
Alexander and Manchin are among the Senate’s top critics of the wind industry’s prized tax credit. While the $23-per-megawatt-hour PTC also supports geothermal, biomass and other renewable sources, wind is responsible for the lion’s share of its cost, estimated at more than $1 billion per year. Wind is the largest non-hydro renewable electricity provider and was the source of more new installed capacity than any other source last year, surpassing natural gas. [ read more … ]
Wind Power Rivals Coal With $1 Billion Order From Buffett
The decision by Warren Buffett’s utility company to order about $1 billion of wind turbines for projects in Iowa shows how a drop in equipment costs is making renewable energy more competitive with power from fossil fuels. Turbine prices have fallen 26 percent worldwide since the first half of 2009, bringing wind power within 5.5 percent of the cost of electricity from coal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a unit of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), yesterday announced an order for 1,050 megawatts of Siemens AG (SIE) wind turbines in the industry’s largest order to date for land-based gear. [ read more … ]
Buffett’s Big Energy Bets Go Beyond ExxonMobil
The Oracle of Omaha is certainly not guilty of a lack of energy in the remaining days of 2013. Warren Buffett grabbed his share of recent headlines when he disclosed a $3.45 billion stake in ExxonMobil. And although this story received large amounts of attention from the media, it’s only fair to acknowledge Berkshire Hathaway’s subsidiary, MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which has also been busy lately. [ read more … ]
Utility launches $1.9B wind power expansion in Iowa
More than 1,000 wind power manufacturing employees in Iowa and Kansas received an early Christmas gift yesterday as energy giant Siemens AG announced that its U.S. plants would supply 448 wind turbines to MidAmerican Energy Co. as part of the largest single order for onshore turbines in history. At a ribbon-cutting at Siemens’ Fort Madison, Iowa, turbine blade manufacturing plant, executives from Siemens and MidAmerican, along with local, state and federal officials, marked the largest economic development project in Iowa history, as Des Moines-based MidAmerican embarks on a $1.9 billion expansion of wind power generation across the state. [ read more … ]
Siemens Says Cape Wind Farm Starts Work, Meeting Deadline
Cape Wind, the proposed $2.6 billion wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts criticized by local residents including the Kennedy family, will qualify for a key federal tax credit that expires at the end of the year, according to its turbine supplier Siemens AG. [ read more … ]
Energy boom has benefited many Midland businesses
Daily oil production in North Dakota is nearing the 1 million-barrels-per-day benchmark, and monthly production records don’t last long. And while it’s a long way from here to Williston, N.D., Nebraska businesses from Omaha to Sidney are feeling a ripple effect. “I would say, over the last five years, it’s probably doubled our operation, both by revenue and employees,” said Don Adams, owner of Adams Industries Inc. in Sidney, Neb. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.