No one in Washington, D.C., is a bigger champion of the wind energy production tax credit than U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). He created the legislation that led to the incentive, which has driven manufacturing jobs felt right here in Jasper County.
“Wind energy supports thousands of jobs and generates billions of dollars in investment across the country using a natural, non-polluting resource,” he said.
Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee is set to take up a proposed package of “green” energy tax extension provisions — called an “extender bill” — that will not include wind energy. As the Ranking Member of the committee and former Finance Committee Chairman, Grassley is throwing his weight behind the legislation.
“There’s no fair rationale for leaving wind energy out of the chairman’s mark,” he said Tuesday. “There’s a significant amount of bipartisan, bicameral support for the wind tax provisions. Just last month, 26 senators and 118 House members urged restoring the lapsed provisions.”
In a brief interview last Thursday, Grassley had said he suggested senators who are opposed to any part of the extender bill should remove those parts, allowing the legislative process to move forward. He said those in support of wind energy, like himself, could then add it back in as an amendment.
He’s sticking to his guns on that plan.
“I’ll file an amendment and work with my colleagues to get the wind energy provisions restored in the tax extenders package moving through the Finance Committee,” he said Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Grassley joined U.S. Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colorado) and U.S. Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa) to author a commentary on wind energy. That commentary will appear in tomorrow’s Daily News on the opinion page.