Subsidies are not artificial methods of holding up an otherwise unprofitable industry, as current detractors of the wind subsidies in Pennsylvania seem to think.
What a subsidy should do is give a fledgling industry the incentive it needs to expand and become profitable.
However, in the same time that the already established and profitable oil and gas industries got $70 billion in subsidies, alternative energy received only $12 billion.
Navigant Consulting found that this year the wind industry would support 78,000 jobs across the nation, but that the number could fall to 41,000 in 2013 without an extension of the production tax credit.
Congressman Bill Shuster continues to vote in favor of oil and gas subsidies, but will not do the same for other industries that bring jobs to Pennsylvania. It is high time we replace him with someone who will vote in favor of Pennsylvania. That someone is Karen Ramsburg.
David Mollica
Hollidaysburg
