Dear Editor,
$1.77 billion - This is how many American tax
dollars Iberdrola has received under Section 1603 of the Recovery Act.
President Obama claimed that the act would help get Americans back to
work. However, a 2013 congressional report compared the tax dollars that
companies, like Iberdrola, received to the jobs created. The report
concluded:
This investigation demonstrates that the Section 1603
grant program failed to meet this goal. Billions of dollars have filled
the coffers of overseas firms while the evidence of the promised
permanent jobs and economic growth here in the United States is scarce.
The modest job creation figures attributed to Section 1603 have come at
an enormous cost when federal deficits are being financed with trillions
of dollars in borrowing. Despite its being billed as a “jobs program,”
actual figures detailing permanent jobs created by the grant program are
difficult to find, with some experts putting the price per job at $1.2
million. In some cases, it is unclear whether the program actually
stimulated development in the renewable energy sector or simply
subsidized projects that the private sector would have come around to on
its own. And it is startling to discover that nearly one quarter of the
$16 billion approved in renewable energy projects under Section 1603 as
of December 2012 have gone to subsidiaries of some of the largest, and
already best-situated, foreign energy companies.
A Washington Free
Beacon article referred to the tax dollars given to companies like
Iberdrola as “corporate welfare.” I agree with this assertion given the
fact that the wind energy industry has grown dependent upon the American
Tax Payer for its very existence. The history of the Production Tax
Credit (PTC) has proven this.
This is why we must contact our Van
Wert County Commissioners at (419) 238-6159 and request that they vote
no on tax abatements (in lieu of property taxes) for the proposed Dog
Creek Wind Farm. Iberdrola has received enough of our tax dollars and
its time they start paying their fair share.
Mark A. Wilson
Delphos