WICHITA — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has come out against the Wind Production Tax Credit, set to expire Dec. 31 unless extended by Congress. The tax credit is regarded by the wind energy industry as critical to continued growth of wind farms in the U.S. On Monday, local Rep. Mike Pompeo issued a statement supporting Romney and reiterated his own long-standing opposition to the tax credit.
Pompeo has even written a bill that would end any tax credits for energy production — but, crucially, his bill doesn’t seek to end tax deductions for energy production, such as those so dear to the Kansas oil industry: the accelerated intangibles provision, which allows oil and gas producers to write-off all drilling costs within the year incurred, and the depletion allowance, which allows owners of producing wells to deduct 15 percent of gross oil and gas income per year. Here’s Pompeo’s statement:
“For the better part of my first term in Congress, I have been working to halt the practice of using taxpayer dollars to pick winners and losers in our energy markets. I’m thankful for Gov. Romney’s strong stance in favor of ending the 20-year-old Wind Production Tax Credit this year. The Solyndra scandal has demonstrated that taxpayers must no longer be forced to subsidize these industries. When the government bets on these energy technologies, it typically selects the most unaffordable energy leading to unnecessarily higher energy prices for all Americans.”
I guess it’s all how you define the word “subsidize.”