María Elvira Salazar: “The Alexander amendment, the way it would strike out the small wind tax credit provision of this legislation, would…”

“The Alexander amendment, the way it would strike out the small wind tax credit provision of this legislation, would cripple the wind power potential for our country in a way that is not healthy as we embrace this agenda. We are dealing with technology that has been around for a long time. Certainly, as we are moving forward with the hope and vision that 25 percent of our energy from this country comes from renewable energy resources, we know there are many components of that portfolio. One of them is wind. Tremendous wind power is being developed around our country, and I will speak about that. But we know we can do much more with small wind microturbines. Here is what they would look like on a farm. This is a picture of a farm that shows an old-style windmill, windmills such as we have seen out on the plains and the prairies for generations. It used to be for many years the only way we could generate power to pump water for cattle out on the range. These windmills were converted over to become electrical generators. Now with the new technology being developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory through their wind technology center, we have developed new wind microturbines that can produce a good amount of energy with very small turbines in place. This picture shows some of those wind turbines in operation. The amendment of the Senator from Tennessee would essentially say we are going to limit where we can allow these small wind microturbines to go up.”