Arkansas Blog: The windmill boom

The windmill boom

Interesting piece from the Arkansas News Bureau explaining the push for corporate welfare to lure a factory that makes blades for energy-generating windmills. A federal tax credit is the original source of momentum for such plants and now states are carving each other up to outbid each other for these plants.

How much water do they use? What kind of demand do they create on wastewater systems? If they should be exempt from the income tax because Texas has no income tax, why shouldn't everybody be exempt from the income tax? How solid is an industry driven on state and federal tax breaks? What's the hysteria about passing a secret giveaway to lure a plant paying $12 to $13 an hour to line workers?

All questions I DON'T expect to hear asked or answered before the legislature gives away the ranch.

Posted by Max Brantley on April 1, 2007 07:22 AM | Permalink

Comments

This is also a good time to ask why the State of Arkansas, unlike some other states, has no program to help foster alternative energy?

With improvements in technology many parts of Arkansas are suitable for wind turbine "farms", that would harness the wind and lessen our dependence on fossil fuels and imported oil.

Yet, Arkansas has no program on the books that might encourage someone to enter this alternative energy field. It's 2007 and we're killing our kids for Exxon......it's time for the State to write some new legislation that will get us off the oil tit.

Posted by: Deathbyinches | April 1, 2007 04:04 PM

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'A night from hell'

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