It does not end. What is not competitive and government dependent just continues that way. This is not only because the market picks winners and leaves the losers for politics. It is also because the market-driven, non-subsidized technology improves over time.

Recently, the wind power federal Production Tax Credit received its 13th extension. IER reported as follows:

The U.S. Congress recently passed a massive spending bill that includes $35 billion in energy research and development programs, a two-year extension of the Investment Tax Credit for solar power, a one-year extension of the Production Tax Credit for wind power, and an extension through 2025 for offshore wind tax credits.

These energy provisions are included in a $1.4 trillion federal spending and tax extension package…. Despite billions of dollars in subsidies and state mandates requiring them, wind and solar power provided less than 10 percent of the nation’s electricity in 2019.

In comparison to the puny government tax favors to oil and gas in electrical generation,

Between 2010 and 2019, the American solar industry got roughly 211 times as much in federal tax incentives as the oil and gas sector, when compared by the amount of electricity produced. And the wind sector received 48 times as much as the oil and gas sector.

Special government favors to business—crony capitalism—can turn losers into winners. And the loser lobby can claim progress and even inevitability as if they really won. This is the postmodernism of energy policy today in regard to the two politically correct renewables: wind and (on-grid) solar.

Appendix: PTC Creation & Extensions

• Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, extending the PTC for 2021
• Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 (P.L. 116-37) extending the PTC through 2020 at a value of $0.015/kWh (Sec. 45)
• Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (P.L. 114-113) , which subsumed the above 2015 law, extending the PTC for 2016-19 but at reduced rates for new facilities beginning construction in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
• Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (P.L. 114-113) extending the PTC through 2015 (Sec. 302)
• Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-295) extending the PTC through 2014 (Sec. 151)
• American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-240) extending the PTC for one year through 2013 (Sec. 407)
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5) extending the wind PTC three years through 2012
• Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-343) extending the wind PTC one year through 2010
• Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-432) extending the wind PTC one year through 2008 and 2009 (Sec. 201)
• Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58), extending the PTC for 2006 and 2007 and extending the payment period through 10/1/2016 (Sec. 202)
• Working Families and Tax Relief Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-311) extending the wind PTC retroactively for 2004 and prospectively for 2005 (Sec. 313)
• Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-47) extending the wind PTC through 2003 (Sec. 603)
• Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-170 extending the wind PTC through 2001 (Sec. 507)
• The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-486) enacted the renewable electricity production tax credit at $0.015/kWh, adjusted for inflation. Available for new projects beginning in 1993 for ten years, the provision was set to expire July 1, 1999.

Editor’s Note: Wind tax credits have also totally distorted our energy market, adding costs in other sectors on top of the costs of the tax credits themselves.