If elected, Mitt Romney will phase out wind farm tax credits in an effort to “create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits,” a Romney campaign spokesman told the Des Moines Register last week.
The Republican presidential candidate said the production tax credits that have boosted investment in wind energy across the nation would be allowed to expire at the end of this year if he takes over the White House in November.
Shawn McCoy, a spokesman for Romney’s Iowa campaign, told the Register that wind energy would still be allowed to “thrive wherever it is economically competitive, and wherever private sector competitors with far more experience than the president believe the investment will produce results.”
President Barack Obama, on the other hand, favors the wind farm tax credits and has said he would keep them intact if reelected in November.
The American Wind Energy Association is warning that a number of projects are already slowing down, as wind farm developers wait to find out whether the credits will live or die.
Marking another stark difference in energy policy between the president and his republican rival, Obama said that, if reelected, he would phase out $40 billion in tax incentives for the oil and gas industries. Romney, meanwhile, has said he would keep those credits intact.
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