Reid 'very confident' wind credit will clear Senate

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas that he is “very confident” the Senate will extend a crucial wind energy tax credit this year.

The Senate Finance Committee passed the 2.2 cent-per-kilowatt-hour production tax credit (PTC) last week in a $205 billion tax extenders package. It now awaits a floor vote.

Still, Reid's pronouncement about the wind credit is less of a headline-grabber than if it had been from a House leader. Republican support for the credit in the Democrat-controlled Senate is stronger than in the lower chamber, as GOP brass Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Scott Brown (Mass.) and Dean Heller (Nev.) have all sponsored legislation to extend the credit for two years.

The House has been a bit more ambiguous about which way it leans on the PTC.

Some GOP House members in wind states have remained quiet on the issue. Other Republicans from Midwest and Great Plains states have voiced support for the PTC. Still more conservatives oppose the PTC because they want to completely revamp the federal tax code. Many resist the credit on ideological grounds, explaining the PTC interferes with the free market.

The PTC is set to expire Dec. 31, and wind power firms and the Obama administration have said its uncertain future has already caused layoffs.

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney helped elevate the PTC discussion last week when he said he favors letting it expire as scheduled. President Obama has repeatedly called on Congress to extend the PTC, and his campaign also bashed Romney last week for his position on the credit.

Reid also laid into climate change deniers and coal plants. He called for the closure of the Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant in Nevada’s Moapa Valley. He added that climate change deniers are “not just on the other side of the debate, they’re on the other side of reality.”