Koch Brothers group calls on Gus Bilirakis and Vern Buchanan to oppose wind subsidies

On page three of your Tampa Bay Times this morning is a quarter-page ad paid for by Americans for Prosperity calling on Republican Congressmen Gus Bilirakis and Vern Buchanan to oppose wind subsidies.

The ad says that “Extending the wind energy handout will cost $13 billion over the next decade,” with one photo of a wind farm and another of dollars being printed. It then advocates that readers call the two GOP Representatives to oppose such wind subsidies.

Two weeks ago, when Congress returned for the lame duck session, AFP released a letter urging all of Congress to oppose extend the wind production tax credit (PTC), calling it “misguided” and asking lawmakers to reject any legislation that extends such wind subsidies.  It actually ended last year, but there is an effort being made to extend it again to 2015. Under the provisions of the previous PTC, wind generators received a $23 tax credit for every megawatt-hour of electricity they generate. (A megawatt-hour is enough juice to power about 1,000 homes for one hour.)

The big energy companies have also been advocating for Congress not to extend the subsidies. In Forbes earlier this month, three CEO’s penned an op-ed  also arguing that Congress refuse to extend the subsidies, writing that “the subsidy distorts power markets by artificially suppressing prices.”

Left unsaid is how many subsidies for fossil fuel production that Congress has enacted over the years. Last year  The Natural Resources Defense Council puts them at $78.24 billion per year. The Christian Science Monitor estimates $41 billion in annual corporate welfare for oil and gas, $8 billion for coal, $9 billion for nuclear, and $6 billion for ethanol, while wind, solar, and other renewables put together get a mere $6 billion.

Americans for Prosperity is the political arms of the conservative Koch Brothers. AFP spent more than $130 million for the 2012 election cycle. In Florida the group has 10 offices, its single largest field operation.