(Alexandria, Virginia) — The 60 Plus Association, America’s largest center-right seniors group with over 7.2 million senior supporters, today issued a statement in opposition to Amendment #133 — Sense of the Congress, 5-year extension of wind tax credits — to the Keystone XL bill. The subsidies are known as the Production Tax Credits, or PTC.

Said 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “Wind tax credits may sound like a good idea, but in reality they make energy more costly for regular consumers and line the pocket of wealthy investors like Warren Buffett, who himself admitted that without government subsidies and big tax breaks, wind energy makes no sense.

“We already know that the EPA’s power plant regulations will hurt the economy, cut jobs, and make electricity more expensive.  But extending industrial wind PTC will open the doors to those harmful regulations.  Without subsidies, consumers would be forced to pay the true costs of expensive and unreliable wind energy – making EPA regulations nearly impossible to implement. Congress needs to put seniors and middle-class families first, above special interests and radical EPA agenda.

“Objective U.S. Energy Information Administration data show nine of the 11 largest wind power states are experiencing skyrocketing electricity prices, rising more than four times the national average. In fact, eight of the 11 are rising more than twice as fast as the 39 states with less than 7 percent wind power generation.

“Wind power tax credits were a bad idea 20 years ago when implemented, and remain a bad idea today. They make energy more costly for seniors on fixed incomes, and are an abuse of the taxpayer for the benefit of wealthy political insiders. Congress must say ‘NO’ to wind energy subsidies at every opportunity, starting now with Amendment #133.”

-30-