VANDERBILT POLITICAL REVIEW
DOMESTIC
The problem of cheap coal
The PTC is essential to developing alternative energies
F
or more than a century, coal generated the vast majority of America’s
electricity. Despite the boom in
natural gas extraction over the last decade, coal continues to generate more
power than any other source. Rampant
pollution and concerns about the continued supply of nonrenewable resources,
however, have caused environmentalists
to make a huge push to modify America’s
energy production methods to incorporate
sources like wind and solar power that
are less damaging to our environment.
The problem with such advocacy is that
finding a cost-effective, environmentally
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by KATIE FUSELIER ‘17
friendly source of energy is difficult. In order to incentivize growth in greener energy development, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act in 1992, which began the
Production Tax Credit (PTC). The PTC,
according to the United States Department
of Energy, is a provision that grants a tax
credit to companies that use wind, geothermal, and “closed-loop” bioenergy to create
energy; the PTC gives co