Conservative group targets GOP members in ads against wind energy credit

The conservative Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is publishing advertisements pushing individual Republicans to oppose tax credits for wind energy.

The ads launched Monday in the hometown newspapers of 15 GOP representatives in eight states who have not given clear positions on the wind energy production tax credit since it expired at the end of last year.

{mosads}They urge readers to contact their representatives and ask them to oppose reauthorizing the credit.

“It’s important that these members go on the record to let their constituents know that even during the little-watched lame-duck session of Congress, they’re committed to opposing needless corporate handouts at taxpayer expense,” Brent Gardner, AFP’s top federal lobbyist, said in a statement Monday.

The ads state that “extending the wind energy handout will cost $13 billion over the next decade.”

AFP has campaigned against renewing the incentive, which gives a credit for each kilowatt-hour of energy a company produces from wind.

It was created 20 years ago, but advocates for other energy forms, along with free-market groups, believe that it is time to let it go.

Lawmakers hope to act before the end of the year to renew many expired tax breaks, but some House Republicans keep pushing against renewing some provisions like the wind credit.