Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has signed a power purchasing deal so the city government can get 35 percent of its energy from wind turbines in Pennsylvania. The mayor’s office says the deal will save residents money and reduce D.C.’s carbon dioxide emissions.
“The District of Columbia is proud to lead the nation in the utilization of affordable, green energy that creates jobs right here at home,” Bowser said in a statement. “The District is well on its way to achieving the Sustainable D.C. goal of using renewables to satisfy 50 percent of DC’s energy supply by 2032.”
The D.C. government has been buying Renewable Energy Certificates, or RECs, to meet its power needs since 2012 — meaning it was paying for green energy that it was not actually using. This is the first deal the city has stuck to get wind power directly from turbines. Interestingly enough, the turbines are owned by the Spanish company Iberdrola Renewables.
Iberdola has been the biggest recipient of corporate welfare under the Obama administration, according to a report by the left-wing group Good Jobs First. The report says Iberdola has gotten some $2.2 billion in corporate subsidies since 2009, mainly by taking “advantage of a provision in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Section 1603) that allows companies to receive cash payments in lieu of tax credits for the installation of renewable energy properties.”
Republican lawmakers have also criticized Obama for giving billions of dollars to foreign green energy companies. A 2013 report released by Republicans found that Iberdola was “one of the largest, if not the single-largest, owner of Section 1603 grant-recipient projects in the U.S.”
Bowser, however, was happy to pen the deal with the heavily subsidized company. The mayor’s office was adamant taxpayers would save millions as a result of the city directly contracting to get wind power from Pennsylvania.
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