A bipartisan duo of Texas lawmakers are taking issue with a long-standing tax incentive they say is causing wind turbine blades to pile up at landfills.
Texas Democratic Rep. Marc Veasey and Republican Rep. Jodey Arrington sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department in recent weeks arguing that the “80/20” incentive offered to wind energy projects is causing unintended economic and environmental consequences.
“Around 8,000 blades will be decommissioned in each of the next three years in the United States alone, and once they are buried in a landfill, they will remain there forever,” the lawmakers wrote. “This number will increase as wind power grows as a portion of the country’s overall energy mix.”
The “80/20 rule,” in the context of wind energy projects, encourages operators to replace 80 percent of their existing wind turbines, pads and towers with new, more-efficient technology.
