Federal handouts for the wind energy industry are scheduled to once again expire at the end of this year.

The Bluegrass Institute has joined more than 100 other organizations, including the Beacon Center of Tennessee, Commonwealth Foundation, John Locke Foundation, Independence Institute, Maine Heritage Policy Center and Freedom Works, in calling on Congress to "break from the past and allow the wind production tax credit (PTC) to expire as scheduled, once and for all."

"Americans deserve energy solutions that can make it on their own in the marketplace—not ones that need to be propped up by government indefinitely,” the letter states. The federal government should not be giving away millions of taxpayer dollars to an unproven and unproductive energy source while at the same time unleashing its regulatory raiders on Kentucky's coal industry.

“The wind industry has very little to show after 20 years of preferential tax treatment; it remains woefully dependent on this federal support," the letter further states. "Yet despite this consistent under-performance, Congress has repeatedly voted to extend the PTC, usually in 1- or 2-year increments. This past year, Congress dramatically expanded the credit in addition to extending it."

It's time for such nonsense to end.