Repealing Tax Breaks for Suppliers Will Complicate Energy Problem (Rep. Michael Burgess)

Extending alternative energy tax credits will help encourage consumers and companies alike to use wind, solar, and geothermal energy, and that’s a good thing. At the same time, with global demand for energy projected to increase by 50 percent in the next 25 years, families and businesses will continue to rely on traditional sources of energy. H.R. 5351 lacks responsible understanding of the scale of these needs from now until alternatives are widely available. Limiting our supply of oil and gas will complicate our energy problems, not correct them. In addition, repealing tax breaks for the suppliers of today and giving them to the potential suppliers of tomorrow is like quitting your current job for a job that might available five to ten years from now.

The America I know embraces and encourages private investment and ingenuity as instruments of progress that lead to things like the mapping of the human genome, the technology revolution of the 1990’s and the automobile assembly line. Our nation does not grandstand against the audacity of profits. Publicly-held corporations employ millions of Americans, stabilize union pension funds, and pay taxes on earnings which support government investments in alternative and renewable energy sources. Remarkably, some members of Congress want to kill America’s ability to do all of these things. Earning profits is a necessary part of investing in renewable energy and “green jobs” in the same quarter. I can’t imagine a worse idea than claiming that the U.S. government can do a better job investing $18 billion into new sources of energy than the private sector.