Another One (Soon) To Bite the Dust? A Warning? -- Wind -- Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Bakken -- For the Bakken, Skip and Scroll

Link to Yahoo!Finance:

The head of the world's biggest wind turbine maker, Vestas said on Sunday that the U.S. wind turbine market is likely to fall by 80 percent next year because of the expected expiry of an important tax credit.

The U.S. production tax credit (PTC) for renewable energy is due to finish at the end of 2012, and, in an election year, it is widely believed that Congress will not pass legislation to renew it before the expiry.

The prospect of a lapse for the PTC is just one of the problems troubling the renewable energy sector amid a global economic slump, which has hit support from governments forced to cut budgets and delayed much investment in energy projects.

There are at least three story lines that could be developed from this.

Go to the link to read about the other problems facing the industry. The lapse of the PTC is "just one of the problems facing the renewable energy sector.

Second, note this phrase: "... which has hit support from governments forced to cut budgets and delayed much investment in energy projects."  The chicken and the egg question, or better, the cause and effect question. Spain, particularly, with its wind and/or solar projects, has been discussed before.  Here. And here.

A third one story: is there any other industry that could "fall by 80 percent next year [simply] because of the expected expiry of an important tax credit"? If an industry is that dependent on a tax credit, just how viable is that industry?

For those who missed it the first time, this might be a good time to read the WSJ editorial of June 6, 2012: Europe's Green Energy Suicide.