Posted by Pono Kealoha on March 19, 2012 at 8:29am
Oh No! Not Again! Please Don't Ask Me
to Submit Testimony Again! What difference has it made?
SB2785 -- The cable regulatory bill -- will be heard in the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce this Monday, March 19th, at 2:00 PM.
158 testimonials in opposition were submitted to the previous House hearing -- more, we're told, than on any other bill this year. So we must keep the pressure on.
Here's what our friends are telling us:
"Don't think no one's paying attention -look at all your testimony! VERY impressive!"
"Good job on your record-breaking number of testifiers!"
"YES, please do continue to testify. Sometimes it may not seem like the pressure is working, but if you keep it up, we can point to the sheer numbers of public opinion."
Given the House rules, testimony must be submitted by Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM.
You can simply check "in opposition" -- this gets
your voice counted. But if you want to personalize your comments, go for it!
Here's a link to the Moloka'i News, with an article about the US Congress voting to end taxpayer (that's you!!) grants and credits to the wind industry:
While it can be argued whether or not a tax credit to the wind industry is good or not, a tax credit is not the same as a subsidy. The primary tax credit available to wind farms in the U.S. by the Federal “Production Tax Credit”, which has been in existence for the last 10 years and was reinstated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, provided income tax credit of 2.1 cents per kilowatt-hr for the production of electricity from utility-scale wind turbines. This is a credit that was strictly available during the first 10 years of operation of a wind farm. Based on the original estimates of Hawaiian Electric, the Molokai wind farm would provide wholesale electricity at somewhere between12-14 cents per kilowatt- hr. This would have compensated for approximately 6-7% of the gross revenue of the wind farm during these start up years. In an initial meeting with Pattern Wind, the question arose that if this tax credit were discontinued, would the project still be feasible? The reply was it would be difficult bit still feasible
Comments
While it can be argued whether or not a tax credit to the wind industry is good or not, a tax credit is not the same as a subsidy. The primary tax credit available to wind farms in the U.S. by the Federal “Production Tax Credit”, which has been in existence for the last 10 years and was reinstated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, provided income tax credit of 2.1 cents per kilowatt-hr for the production of electricity from utility-scale wind turbines. This is a credit that was strictly available during the first 10 years of operation of a wind farm. Based on the original estimates of Hawaiian Electric, the Molokai wind farm would provide wholesale electricity at somewhere between12-14 cents per kilowatt- hr. This would have compensated for approximately 6-7% of the gross revenue of the wind farm during these start up years. In an initial meeting with Pattern Wind, the question arose that if this tax credit were discontinued, would the project still be feasible? The reply was it would be difficult bit still feasible