The Republican national platform supports all energy sources, including wind and solar, with no federal help for any of them.
“We support the development of all forms of energy that are marketable in a free economy without subsidies, including coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, and hydropower,” the platform says.
“We encourage the cost-effective development of renewable energy sources — wind, solar, biomass, biofuel, geothermal and tidal energy — by private capital,” it added.
The wind industry reacted to the platform’s stipulations of no public subsidies as a misinterpretation of what it called a government “success story” for an industry that is still relatively small compared to natural gas, coal and nuclear that receive benefits from federal coffers.
“Wind energy still accounts for an extremely small share of all federal energy incentives, according to the most comprehensive review of energy incentives to date,” a response from the American Wind Energy Association said. “AWEA’s compilation of all available data from government and other sources shows that for every dollar spent on federal energy incentives, wind energy received less than 3 cents.”
An analysis the group issued in response to the platform’s inclusion of wind energy called the federal production tax credit for wind, or PTC, “an American success story.”
It has been a success because, unlike other countries, it incentivizes wind production of electricity, not deployment and construction of the devices, according to the AWEA analysis.
“Partly as a result, U.S. wind turbines are nearly twice as productive as those in China and Germany,” the analysis said. “The U.S. leads the world in wind energy production, even though China has installed nearly twice as much wind-generating capacity.”
It also underscores the economic development that has accompanied the growth of wind farms across the country, while underscoring that more conventional energy resources that make up a larger share of the nation’s energy supply continue to receive tax breaks — they’re just better hidden than those received by renewables.
“Having incentives for other energy sources in the permanent tax code not only makes them less visible than policies like the renewable production tax credit (PTC) that must be frequently renewed, but also makes them more valuable by providing long-term predictability to the businesses that use them,” the analysis added.
The wind industry scored a big win in last year’s omnibus spending bill, which extended the PTC for five years but established a phaseout of the plan over that period.
The GOP platform places the renewable energy industry on the defensive. In addition to its support of a range of electricity-generating sources, the platform heavily backs the oil and natural gas fracking boom.
“A federal judge has struck down the [Interior Department’s] rule on hydraulic fracturing and we support upholding this decision,” the platform reads. It also supports an expedited approval process for facilities to export natural gas for sale in foreign countries.
“Energy exports will create high-paying jobs throughout the United States, reduce our nation’s trade deficit, grow our economy, and boost the energy security of our allies and trading partners,” according to the platform.
It opposes the Democratic policy position of “keep it in the ground.”
“Keeping energy in the earth will keep jobs out of reach of those who need them most,” it said. “For low-income Americans, expensive energy means colder homes in the winter and hotter homes in the summer, less mobility in employment, and higher food prices.”
A primary way of keeping energy affordable is through coal, not by supporting renewable energy, according to the platform.
The Democratic Party’s goal is “to smother the U.S. energy industry,” the platform says. “The Democratic Party does not understand that coal is an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource.”
The platform says the current administration, “and particularly its EPA, seems not to care.” It adds that the “centerpiece of the president’s war on coal,” the Clean Power Plan, “has been stayed by the Supreme Court. We will do away with it altogether.”
“Those who mine it and their families should be protected from the Democratic Party’s radical anti-coal agenda,” it says.
