Renew incentives wind power

By The Bakersfield Californian

Japanese candidates kick off campaign with focus on economy,solar panel nuclear power

Leaders for Japan's biggest political parties are kicking off the campaign for parliamentary elections to be held in less than two weeks with visits to nuclear crisis-hit Fukushima prefecture.

Nuclear energy and the economy are key issues in the Dec. 16 election, which is widely expected to send Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's unpopular Democratic Party of Japan to defeat after three years in power.

The opposition Liberal Democratic Party is leading in the polls, but is unlikely to win a majority of seats in the lower house of parliament.

The most likely outcome of the election is a coalition government whose makeup is far from clear.

Polls show more than 40 percent of voters don't know which party they'll support in the election.

As our nation is facing a financial crisis, we must invest wisely in a future with cleaner air and smart use of our water resources. The two key federal wind power incentives, grid tie inverter the production tax credit and the offshore wind investment tax credit, expire at the end of the year. If Congress does not act now to extend these policies, many proposed wind farms will simply not be built and we'll be throwing cleaner air, a more secure future and water savings to the wind.

California's wind power currently saves enough water to meet the needs of 38,900 people, according to a new Environment California report, "Wind Power for a Cleaner America." Power plants require vast amounts of water for cooling, reducing the amount of water available for irrigation, wildlife, recreation or domestic use, now and in the future -- while wind power requires none of this. Across the country, more water is withdrawn from lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers for the purpose of cooling power plants than for any other purpose.

Wind power is at a critical time in its growth -- now powering nearly 1.2 million homes across California. In 2011, California installed more new wind capacity than any other state in the nation.

We thank Rep. Kevin McCarty for supporting wind power inverter in the past and urge him to do all he can to renew the wind tax credits -- our clean air, water and the future of the wind industry depend on it.