Wind Tax Credit End Could Affect ND Jobs, Expert Says

The Federal Production Tax Credit for wind energy developers is set to expire at the end of the year. A wind energy expert says that could directly impact hundreds of jobs in North Dakota.

I talked with Jay Haley, who is from the EAPC wind consultant in Grand Forks and he says contractors and developers are scrambling right now to finish wind production projects in order to qualify for the federal tax credit. Haley says the subsidy can accounts for about half of the revenue of new wind farms for the first ten years. Haley say this directly affects hundreds of jobs at places like LM Wind Power of Grand forks and wind tower manufacturing DMI industries in Fargo. Energy production sources have some government subsidies support. He points out that subsidies for coal fired plants can range for 12 to 14 cents per kilowatt hour, in comparison the subsidy for wind is a fraction of that at 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour.

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