With all the buzz around the fiscal cliff in Congress, something happened that you might’ve missed.
There’s a federal tax credit. It’s called the wind energy Production Tax Credit, and it was about to expire at the end of last year.
At the final hour, Congress extended that tax credit, and President Obama signed the bill.
It now covers wind projects that start construction in 2013.
Peter Kelley, a spokesman for the American Wind Energy Association, says the credit gives tax relief for the first ten years of a wind farm.
Kelley says companies had started laying people off last year with the future of the tax credit up in the air.
“We believe that factories that had a lack of orders for 2013 will start to get orders as contracts are signed and as development companies agree with utilities that they’re going to provide more wind energy," said Kelly. "It may take a few months; it won’t be an instantaneous call back.”
He says in Michigan, there are at least 41 factories that make components for wind turbines.
