This summer I went from a hawk rocking, megaphone wielding, firebrand climate activist to a business casual, policy reading, energy and legislative outreach intern.  Initially awkward, this transition has provided me with insight into a missing piece of our fight against dirty energy and the Keystone XL.  Our fight against the Keystone XL, dirty coal, and disastrous fracking will not achieve our long term clean energy goals if we do not support policies like H.R.3307 for the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for clean energy with the same fervor that we apply to stopping dirty energy.

The PTC provides a 2.2-cent/kilowatt hour tax credit during the first 10 years of a wind energy facility’s operation.  This incentive is a primary driver for investment in new wind projects across the United States. Since 1999, our government has allowed the PTC to expire on three separate occasions, each time grinding the wind industry to a near halt. 

Our current PTC is set to expire in December of this year and Congress has failed several times to pass an extension to this policy. Already we are seeing a freeze on new planned wind projects in the United States and a recent study shows that without an extension, 37,000 people in the wind industry will lose their jobs.  

Without the PTC we will begin to see more and more of the coal plants we shut down replaced with natural gas instead of real clean energy. If we want to move beyond coal and stop fracking in its tracks it is imperative that we mobilize to support a swift and strong extension to these clean energy credits.

I remember back to my first campaign training where I learned that the best campaign strategy is the one that takes the least amount of work.  Quite frankly I was not arrested in front of the White House to see the Keystone XL stick around with such tenacity that it would be dubbed the “Zombie Pipeline.”  I’m ready to deliver the finishing blow.

I’ve watched our political leaders use the PTC and the Keystone XL against each other as bargaining pieces on payroll tax and budget appropriations bills for months as if stopping the Keystone XL and passing the PTC are mutually exclusive. The result has been no clean energy credits and a failure to stop the pipeline once and for all.

If we stop the Keystone XL at the expense of the wind industry what victory have we won?

The PTC will create tens of thousands of jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. It has bi-partisan support in Congress and in what may be the definition of strange bedfellows the Chamber of Commerce has come to the defense of the PTC.   This is a political no brainer but with the current hostility in congress the PTC depends on each and every one of you.

Write a letter to the editor or visit your member of congress and tell them why you support clean energy credits like the PTC.

The fight against the Keystone XL has become symbolic of the resurgence of the climate movement and victory is within our reach.  We must incorporate advocating for the PTC into our strategies to stop the dreaded pipeline.

Learn more about the PTC here and find renewable energy companies in your area.