On the recordFebruary 15, 2012
I say to Senator Sanders, one of the things that I think is very instructive is that the history of the wind production tax credit has been completely bipartisan. I would like to lay out a little bit of that history. The production tax credit began in a bipartisan energy policy in 1992, signed by then-President George H.W. Bush. It was extended in December 1999 by a Republican Congress and signed into law by President Clinton. It was extended again in 2002 and in 2004, this time signed into law by President George W. Bush. In 2005, it was extended again as a part of bipartisan energy legislation, the 2005 Energy Policy Act. The Senator and I, I think, were both in the House at that time, and we voted for that in the House. In December 2006, it was extended again. Most recently, it was extended in the 2009 Recovery Act, which was signed by President Obama. So Congress should continue this bipartisan tradition and extend the wind production tax credit, these other tax credits that create clean energy jobs, and stay focused on the good job we have been doing that has been bipartisan. That is why I do not understand the House, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee saying: Oh, we can do these later. We need to do this work today. We need to put that in place now so that we can grow these clean energy jobs. Is that the Senator's understanding?
