Bennet Keeps Focus on Colorado’s Clean Energy Economy, Wind Energy Tax Credit

Denver, CO – Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today continued to highlight Colorado’s leadership in clean energy as well as the need for Congress to extend the wind energy production tax credit (PTC) in events today in Englewood and Windsor.

To start the day, Bennet delivered opening remarks for the Balanced Energy Economy Symposium, hosted by the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation at HIS headquarters in Englewood. He told attendees that a comprehensive and forward-looking energy policy is an essential part of the answer to the question of whether our country is going to compete in the 21st century.

Bennet later traveled to Windsor to tour Hexcel’s manufacturing plant there, which currently employs 103 workers to manufacture components for the wind energy industry. He used the visit to continue to make a case for the extension of the wind energy PTC to give developers and manufacturers certainty in planning for the future.

Failure to extend the tax credit would have a huge impact on Colorado’s wind energy industry and would lead to the loss of Colorado jobs. Bennet also made the case for extending the wind energy PTC in an op-ed published in the Pueblo Chieftain today.

The day’s events are part of Bennet’s ongoing efforts for the wind energy PTC extension. Last week, Bennet and Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) filed a bipartisan amendment to the transportation bill to extend this tax credit, which is set to expire at the end of 2012 if Congress does not act. He recently spoke on the floor of the Senate on the economic importance of extending the wind credit.

Earlier, Bennet led seven other members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation in calling on a congressional conference committee to extend the wind energy production tax credit as part of the payroll tax extension.