Good for the governor

Our governor says he's sticking to his guns on wind energy, and plans to keep pushing his party's presidential nominee to change his mind about wind energy tax credits.

"I'm going to," Gov. Terry Branstad said at his weekly press conference this a.m. when asked if he'd keep pressing Mitt Romney to change his mind on letting the credit expire. "I think this is important."

Iowa is the No. 2 state in wind energy capacity and is No. 1 in the number of people employed in manufacturing components for wind turbines. Iowa's wind industry has grown steadily with the help of the credit, so it's no surprise that so many politicians of every stripe in the state and nationally are in favor of its extension.

Romney has basically made a political calculation that anything looking or smelling "green" should be swiftly derided  as "stimulus" or slapped with a  "Solyndra" label and axed. Of course, the wind credit has nothing to do with the stimulus and long predates it, as Branstad pointed out today. If you clear away the election year politics, Romney could probably be persuaded to support an extension. So Branstad should keep trying.

He also noted that the industry is making progress on slicing the cost of generating wind energy, progress that could continue with the help of the tax credit. No credit should last forever, but now would be a lousy time to end  this one. So good for the governor.