Our analysis of wind energy generation in Iowa as a tax boondoggle recently received a bit of affirmation from Warren Buffet, who, no doubt, reads these pages.
STILL TILTING AT WINDMILLS
The billionaire investor leads Berkshire Hathaway which is the 80 percent to 90 percent owner of MidAmerican Energy Holdings, the prime energy supplier in this area. The preponderance of wind electrical generation in Iowa is also owned by them. The state of Iowa ranks 3rd in the country for the number of utility-scale wind turbines and now claims the top spot in the nation for the percentage of electricity generated by wind energy at 27.4%.
But now the “Oracle of Omaha” as he is also known, has given us the “quote of the day…month?…year?” Regardless, it is quite precious, straight from the horse’s, er, mouth. He is quoted in today’s Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial as follows: “I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire’s tax rate. For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.” (bold our emphasis)
By the way, MidAmerican Energy Holdings has now been renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Just write the checks to “Uncle Warren.” And given the amount and kinds of subsidies and mandates, you can write some of your tax payment checks to “Uncle Warren” as well.
The WSJ editorial is titled — The Real Buffett Rule: Obama’s favorite tax adviser refines his soak-the-rich policy. If the subscription page gets in the way of the link, the text is also available here. DLH and R Mall
Just a shell game, moving the action from ethanol to wind.