WHEREAS, The Production Tax Credit supports the development of renewable energy sources, including wind power, by providing a 2.2 cent per kilowatt-hour benefit for the first ten years of a renewable energy facility's operation. The credits were created as part of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and has received six short-term extensions. Its seventh extension is supported by President Obama and 28 state governors; and
WHEREAS, The wind industry supports about 75,000 jobs nationwide, and over 60 percent of wind-turbine and tower components are made domestically. Roughly half of the nation's wind jobs rely on the Production Tax Credit, including those in Pennsylvania. There are 22 wind energy manufacturing facilities throughout Pennsylvania, and there are construction projects lined up to triple the state's wind energy output. Currently, wind farms generate about 1,029 megawatts - enough power to light over 250,000 homes - and the wind industry has created jobs for over 3,000 Pennsylvanians; and
WHEREAS, In 2004, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, requiring electricity distribution companies and suppliers to supply 18 percent of sales to retail customers from alternative energy sources by 2020. The American Wind Energy Association asserts that the state is becoming a manufacturing powerhouse for the wind energy industry; and
WHEREAS, Many of the skills Pennsylvania workers possess easily transfer to wind energy manufacturing, providing thousands of new jobs and spurring billions in investment. Additionally, wind power is sustainable, creates no emissions and uses virtually no water. The wind power installed in Pennsylvania will avoid over 1.75 million metric tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions; and
WHEREAS, As members of the Governor's Wind Energy Coalition wrote in November, The United States has some of the best wind resources in the world, but the lack of policy stability hinders the nation's ability to develop them fully. And short-term extensions of the credits will continue to discourage substantial investments from companies for research and development; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That the United States Congress is urged to renew of the Production Tax Credit, which supports the growth of renewable energy sources and more than 3,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, before it expires on December 31, 2012.
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