Green Policy Ads Go Underground on Capitol Hill

The subways in most of the country are covered with ads for big budget Hollywood flicks or cable reality television shows. The subways in the Washington DC-area, however, have a very specific demographic and the ads on the trains look to target those policy-making riders. The American Wind Energy Association is taking advantage of that has this ad up in the DC subway warning viewers that “stopping wind turbines will result in a loss of jobs.”

The production tax credit, and its sister bill the investment tax credit that helps solar, have yet to be renewed and are set to expire at the end of 2008. The credits are crucial for continued development of renewable energy developments, a booming industry. Last year wind energy production capacity surged by 45 percent.

Congress has failed to answer the pleas of the cleantech industry and already missed a deadline on March 1 called for by a letter from John Doerr, Google’s Green Energy Czar William Wiehl and 350 others in cleantech.

Now we are rapidly approaching a potential date set by Donna Flynn, Washington Council for Ernst & Young, who implored: “We need something before July 1st or we’re going to die.” Every day Congress does not renew the credits, capital for wind and solar projects will get more expensive, shuttering investment.

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