In1926 Congress created the percentage depletion allowance that allows an oil and gas investor to deduct from income 15% per year as long as the well produces, even beyond the cost of the investment. Another $1B/yr.

Then in 1986 Congress allowed non-corporate investors, again only in oil and gas development, to be considered as having a working interest for the purposes of deducting losses against their active income.

Subsidies are subsidies regardless of which end of the tax code they are on, deductions or tax credits, since the net effect is the same, a reduction in tax liability. Most of the above applies to the independents.

I encourage readers to look at the US tax code and then decide if Mr. Pompeo really wants to quit picking winners and losers or simply wants to protect the independent oil and gas industry. Don’t be fooled by his inclusion of oil and gas subsidies, the ones he picked only kick in with very low oil and gas prices, consequently have no current applicability.

Mr. Moran is simply picking another winner that’s only had about twenty years to collect a subsidy compared to almost a century for oil and gas.

As Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) points out, ?The PTC means keeping investment dollars in the market place ? not in the hands of government.?

The federal PTC is an effective tool to allow developers to raise private capital in the marketplace and bring renewable energy projects to completion. As well-known Republican advisor John Feehery recently wrote on his blog, The Feehery Theory: ?Many conservative governors understand the stakes and are pushing for the extension of the PTC. Such stalwarts of the right like Sam Brownback, the Kansas Governor, and Terry Branstad, the Iowa Governor, signed onto to a letter that urged the quick adoption of a PTC extension.?

Additionally, pro-business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, Edison Electric Institute and American Farm Bureau Federation also support this PTC extension.

Here are the facts. A PTC extension bill has the support of 70 House members ? including 18 Republicans, four of which are on the Ways and Means committee. The PTC has also already contributed to more than $60 billion in private investment and 400+ manufacturing facilities across the U.S.

But distributed rooftop solar makes a heck of a lot of sense.

And my main point was that coal, oil, and natural gas only seem cheap because so few people live where they are extracted, and the negative effects when they are burned are widely distributed leading to discounting based on the way humans perceive source, risk and value.

My main point is that we actually need government in this case to fix a free market failure. Is the PTC perfect? Heck no. But it does help support a real growth industry. I would love to see a per/quad evaluation of different technologies and their environmental impact.

Personally I think we need to be throwing a heck of a lot more money into efficiency, advanced nuclear, and fusion, but that is a whole different can of worms.

You’re comparing a vast coal/oil infrastructure that provides trillions of BTUs of energy vs. a relative few startup companies that do solar and wind power. But if we tried to scale up solar power to the scale needed to replace oil, there would be plenty of externalities there too.

Would you care to calculate the externalities of paving over tens of thousands of square miles of delicate desert ecosystems with solar panels?

Even setting aside global warming and climate change, there is the fact that coal production is insanely costly the environment and while regulation like the clean air act and the clean water act have helped there is still significant pollution associated with mining and burning coal. Enjoy that mercury in your salmon. But of course coal isnt going anywhere anytime soon, but that doesnt mean that it should always be the cheapest source, because in reality it isnt that cheap just that the price is paid somewhere other than the meter.

So why is a production tax credit that encourages manufacturing and helps to correct clear market failures such a bad thing? Please someone enlighten me why I shouldnt care about negative externalities when I consider the price of electricity.

It appears that Palin picked the “right” horse to endorse in that race.

Moran—just like Tea Party types Tim Scott of SC (Charleston harbor dredging) and Jon Runyan of NJ (coastal beach re nourishment), believes in cutting spending wherever possible-just not in their back yards.

The de facto oath I assume all members of Congress take when elected is to cut spending and special interest programs JUST AS LONG AS IT DOES NOT INVOLVE MY STATE, DISTRICT, MY CONTRIBUTORS, OR MY CONSTITUENTS.

When campaigning, he promised to fight for off shore drilling off the VA coasts, and said it would be crucial for job growth in the state. As we know, Obama banned off shore oil drilling, and told McDonnell, too bad but no. McDonnell apparently took that as a hint that off shore oil drilling will never again happen, even if we elect a Republican president in 2012, and now wants to turn that area into a major wind farm, much like Christie has done in NJ.

McDonnell has endorsed Romney, one of the only two candidates on the VA primary ballot, and has been a very busy little bee campaigning with/for him around the country. McDonnell has stated publically that he would be very honored to be chosen as the VP running mate.

So we have two Republican Governors who have endorsed Romney, who are pushing ahead for wind energy, and alternative fuels. Is that a hint that Romney will go all in for green energy initiatives? I believe I read something about Romney passing the most strict state air quality standards in the nation when he was Gov. of Mass.