Small business, real small business is the backbone of the US economy. Small businesses, those with fewer than 500 employees account for more than 70% of new jobs. Providing tax incentives to big business is not a prudent investment of tax dollars.
David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) discusses the argument of the Bush tax cut extension.
After watching the video, please read my post regarding the possible five year enterprise zone tax exemption being requested by ORC. It isn’t too late to stop it.
Tax incentives are everywhere, of course, especially in energy. Energy is heavily subsidized and wind energy is no exception. While some incentives may be in place with the best of intentions they often do not work out as planned. As I have written in detail before my chosen industry, wind energy also sticks it to the taxpayer while enriching the rich. Catch this article from Slate
Imagine a company proposed to construct a bridge in Minneapolis, or some other major city, that would cost, say, $250 million. The road would be designed to carry thousands of cars per day. But there’s a catch: During rush hour, the thoroughfare would effectively be closed, with only 5 percent, or maybe 10 percent, of its capacity available to motorists. Were this scenario to actually occur, the public outrage would be quick and ferocious.
That’s exactly the issue we are facing with wind energy. The reality is that towering wind turbines—for all their allure to certain political groups—are simply supernumeraries in our sprawling electricity delivery system. They do not, cannot, replace coal-fired, gas-fired, or (my personal favorite) nuclear power plants.
Despite these facts, wind-energy lobbyists have been wildly successful at convincing the public and—more importantly—politicians, that wind energy is the way of the future. More than 30 states now have rules that will require dramatic increases in renewable electricity production over the coming years. And wind must provide most of that production, since it’s the only renewable source that can rapidly scale up to meet the requirements of the mandate.
Decentralized power production, however, is not such a disaster… and, of course, ducted fans are so much better than the standard wind farm model.
