KATE GORDON: The wind-energy sector won a long-fought battle in mid-July, when the Senate Finance Committee voted to extend the production tax credit, the most commonly-used subsidy for wind project development in the U.S., for another two years.
According to Kate Gordon , a Wall Street Journal writer , the subsidy industry is heating up as renewable energy costs hit a historic low , as wind , solar and biomass fuels are already cost - competitive with most conventional fossil fuels . However , given prices of some renewable sources are now competitive , many critics argue that subsidies are no longer needed to fund these projects . Gordon argues that low carbon technologies are still working with an infrastructure built for fossil fuels ; new companies building new energy sources need to build their own infrastructure , which is factored into the cost .