Electric vehicles are a winning strategy to increase affordability, lower total costs, and make our communities healthier and stronger. Even if you’re not an EV owner or aren’t currently interested in purchasing a new or used EV as your next vehicle, there are many reasons to support American leadership in the industry.
- Electric vehicles reduce pollution—both air pollution that harms our health and makes us and our kids sick and climate pollutants that are making devastating weather events more common. No tailpipes means zero local air pollutants. Electric vehicles, which are highly energy efficient, mean less carbon and reduced climate pollutants, regardless of how the electricity to power them is sourced.
- Electric vehicles offer an overall more affordable vehicle option. The lifetime cost of owning a battery electric vehicle is often cheaper than that of an internal combustion vehicle because of lower fuel and maintenance costs, even though the upfront cost is higher.
Tax credits make it easier and more affordable to purchase an EV, make it safer and more reliable to rely on EVs, and increase easy access to charging.
At a Glance
- Electric transportation reduces pollution and makes our communities healthier.
- Americans deserve the freedom to drive affordable electric cars. Tax credits support that.
- Vehicle tax credits support consumers and businesses purchasing EVs and charging equipment. Charging tax credits expand the infrastructure we need to safely and confidently rely on this clean technology. Manufacturing tax credits are creating opportunities for domestic production and bringing back American jobs.
- Any action to cancel the tax credits will reduce freedom of choice and accessibility.
Chart by Meeting Street Insights and Hart Research for Centerline Liberties + CEN + ZETA.
Electric Transportation Reduces Pollution and Makes Our Communities Healthier
Air pollution released by tailpipes from our gas and diesel vehicles is a significant source of the pollution we breathe and directly leads to health risks like heart attacks, stroke, low birth weight, and cancer. Driving electric transit and school buses, cars and trucks, which are pollution-free, help reduce toxic fumes from tailpipes, clean up our air, and improve our quality of life. Additionally, pollution from tailpipes is causing our planet to overheat, contributing to climate change and extreme weather. EVs can clean our air and protect communities from the impacts of climate pollution.
Electric School Buses Are Safer for Our Kids Diesel currently powers more than 90% of school buses in the US, and its exhaust is linked to serious physical health and cognitive development issues for students. On the other hand, electric school buses have no tailpipe at all. Electrifying the full U.S. school bus fleet by 2030 would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9 million metric tons per year, the equivalent of taking 2 million cars off the roads.
Electric vehicle tax credits and charging station credits are making it less expensive for school districts to purchase electric school buses and install the charging infrastructure to support them. These tax credits are helping to add more pollution-free buses to our roads and clean up the air in the communities they drive through, creating stronger, healthier communities.
Americans Deserve the Right to Choose the Car They Want to Drive
Electric vehicle and charging infrastructure tax credits give Americans the freedom to drive the vehicle they choose. Electric vehicles already have lower total costs, and tax credits decrease manufacturing costs, upfront costs, and charging barriers to purchasing or leasing EVs. Expanded accessibility to electric vehicles and charging stations increases Americans’ choices to drive the vehicle type of their choosing. Americans should be able to afford electric vehicles.
Vehicle tax credits lower the cost at the point of sale for new and used EVs or make leasing more affordable, expanding choice and accessibility for American consumers. Government and private incentives have already lowered prices, but we need to keep investing to make them cheaper for everyday Americans. Federal tax credits address both of these concerns.
Charging infrastructure tax credits are critical to increasing access to charging and incentivizing private capital to build more stations. The most common barriers to EV purchase are cost and lack of charging stations. Currently, the Southeast lacks access to charging stations compared to the national average, 0.40 vs 0.52 charging stations per 1,000 people. This lack of accessible charging keeps consumers from having the confidence to purchase and drive electric. We created the national highway system to ensure Americans the freedom to travel reliably between various areas of our country. In the same way, charging station tax credits help make charging stations more accessible everywhere, giving Americans the freedom to drive EVs longer distances to different places.
Commercial EV tax credits (45W) allow increased affordability for businesses and tax-exempt and often cash-strapped entities (like your local government or school district) to lower upfront premiums and transition their fleets to electric. One key feature of the Commercial EV tax credit is a new financing mechanism, called “direct pay”, that enables eligible tax-exempt entities, like governments and non-profit organizations, to access tax credits. These credits often lower the total cost of owning and operating an electric fleet than a gas fleet, thereby reducing the burden on local taxpayers. For example, if a city wants to purchase an electric vehicle, but they don’t have the extra upfront capital compared to the cost of a comparable gas vehicle, this tax credit will help lower that premium, and over the lifetime, the city will benefit – at a value more than that of the tax credit – in lower fuel and maintenance costs. This is a common-sense solution to reducing government transportation spending. Tax credits are a temporary solution, and we will not need them forever: as the upfront costs of EVs come down in coming years, this offset will become unnecessary. But they are critical right now, while the industry is still growing, to sustain momentum.
Federal Tax Credits Support American Manufacturing and Jobs. The past several decades have seen automotive manufacturing move overseas. By investing in electric vehicle manufacturing, new jobs are created in surprising places. Did you know that Georgia leads the nation in EV and battery jobs? The rapid success of the federal electric vehicle tax credits is a result of two economic levers working together to support this industry growth. One is the supply-side tax credits, and the second is the demand-side electric vehicle tax credits, which work in tandem to bring manufacturing back to American communities and jobs back to American families.
- Supply-side manufacturing tax credits offer manufacturers incentives to build their factories here and hire American workers. And they’re working. In the past two years, several factories have begun construction, and we’re seeing 12 percent annual job growth in the EV sector in our region. An anticipated 73,000 jobs will support every facet of the EV supply chain: battery manufacturing, vehicle manufacturing, and charging equipment. The Southeast is benefiting in an outsized way. 31 percent of the total national EV manufacturing jobs are concentrated in the Southeast. Did you know that two American manufacturers, Bluebird and Thomas Built, are building electric school buses in Georgia and North Carolina, respectively?
- Demand-side manufacturing tax credits help make it easier for American consumers to say yes to electric vehicles made in the USA. Electric vehicle (EV) sales grew 42% in the Southeast from July 2023 to June 2024, and the price is coming down thanks to advances in battery technology and economies of scale. If more Americans are buying EVs, manufacturers will make EVs in higher numbers, thus creating stability for American workers building the cars in the Southeast. It’s a positive feedback loop that is making American families more prosperous. Let’s keep it going!
The Case for Keeping the EV Tax Credits
Electric vehicles are a winning strategy to increase affordability, lower total costs, and make our communities healthier and stronger. Getting more clean vehicles on the road is a big step toward cleaning up our air and ensuring healthier communities. Electric vehicle and charging infrastructure tax credits give Americans the freedom to drive the vehicle they choose. Electric vehicles already have lower total costs, and tax credits decrease upfront costs and charging barriers to purchasing or leasing EVs. Tax credits also support American manufacturing leadership in the industry. We should support continuing these tax credits. Any action by Congress to cancel the tax credits will reduce freedom of choice and accessibility.
Resources
UNDERSTANDING EV TAX CREDITS AND HOW TO CLAIM THEM FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY LEADERS
Find the Right EV and Maximize Your Tax Credits: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR CONSUMERS
Plug in America’s Resources on EV Tax Credits
IRS Website on EV and Charging Station Tax Credits
Clean Vehicle Manufacturing Credit
The post Federal EV Tax Credits Make Our Communities Healthier & Stronger appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Federal EV Tax Credits Make Our Communities Healthier & Stronger
What would one expect a sycophant to say?
My maternal grandfather was born in southeastern Pennsylvania in 1903 and told me when I was a boy that in the 1920s, times were so good that saloon owners would offer a free lunch, consisting of bread and butter, cheese, cold cuts, pickles and the like. “Sure, they were hoping you’d buy a glass of beer for a nickel, but they really didn’t mind if you didn’t and simply scarfed down a free sandwich.”
He went on to tell me that nowadays, there’s a popular slogan: There’s no such thing as a free lunch, “but believe me, there was at the time.”
From today’s perspective of greed and selfishness, this whole story sounds like a fairy tale. Corporations and the congresspeople they own want one thing: to suck the life out of us.
Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage
This exclusive article originally appeared in PES Wind 4 – 2025 with the title, Operations take center stage in wind’s next chapter. It was written by Allen Hall and other members of the WeatherGuard Lightning Tech team.
As aging fleets, shrinking margins, and new policies reshape the wind sector, wind energy operations are in the spotlight. The industry’s next chapter will be defined not by capacity growth, but by operational excellence, where integrated, predictive maintenance turns data into decisions and reliability into profit.
Wind farm operations are undergoing a fundamental transformation. After hosting hundreds of conversations on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, I’ve witnessed a clear pattern: the most successful operators are abandoning reactive maintenance in favor of integrated, predictive strategies. This shift isn’t just about adopting new technologies; it’s about fundamentally rethinking how we manage aging assets in an era of tightening margins and expanding responsibilities.
The evidence was overwhelming at this year’s SkySpecs Customer Forum, where representatives from over 75% of US installed wind capacity gathered to share experiences and strategies. The consensus was clear: those who integrate monitoring, inspection, and repair into a cohesive operational strategy are achieving dramatic improvements in reliability and profitability.
Takeaway: These options have been available to wind energy operations for years; now, adoption is critical.
Why traditional approaches to wind farm operations are failing
Today’s wind operators face an unprecedented convergence of challenges. Fleets installed during the 2010-2015 boom are aging in unexpected ways, revealing design vulnerabilities no one anticipated. Meanwhile, the support infrastructure is crumbling; spare parts have become scarce, OEM support is limited, and insurance companies are tightening coverage just when operators need them most.
The situation is particularly acute following recent policy changes. The One Big Beautiful Bill in the United States has fundamentally altered the economic landscape. PTC farming is no longer viable; turbines must run longer and more reliably than ever before. Engineering teams, already stretched thin, are being asked to manage not just wind assets but solar and battery storage as well. The old playbook simply doesn’t work anymore.
Consider the scope of just one challenge: polyester blade failures. During our podcast conversation with Edo Kuipers of We4Ce, we learned that an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 blades worldwide are experiencing root bushing issues. ‘After a while, blades are simply flying off,’ Kuipers explained. The financial impact of a single blade failure can exceed €300,000 when you factor in replacement costs, lost production, and crane mobilization. Yet innovative repair solutions, like the one developed by We4Ce and CNC Onsite, can address the same problem for €40,000 if caught early. This pattern repeats across every major component. Gearbox failures that once required complete replacement can now be predicted months in advance. Lightning damage that previously caused catastrophic failures can be prevented with inexpensive upgrades and real-time monitoring. All these solutions are based on the principle that predicted maintenance is better than an expensive surprise.
Seeing problems before they happeny, and potential risks
The transformation begins with visibility. Modern monitoring systems reveal problems that traditional methods miss entirely. Eric van Genuchten of Sensing360 shared an eye-opening statistic on our podcast: ‘In planetary gearbox failures, they get 90%, so there’s still 10% of failures they cannot detect.’ That missing 10% represents the catastrophic failures that destroy budgets and production targets. Advanced monitoring technologies are filling these gaps. Sensing360’s fiber optic sensors, for example, detect minute deformations in steel components, revealing load imbalances and fatigue progression invisible to traditional monitoring. ‘We integrate our sensors in steel and make rotating equipment smarter,’ van Genuchten explained.
Other companies are deploying acoustic systems to identify blade delamination, oil analysis for gearbox health, and electrical signature analysis for generator issues. Each technology adds a piece to the puzzle, but the real value comes from integration. The impact of load monitoring alone can be transformative.
As van Genuchten explained, ‘Twenty percent more loading on a gearbox or on a bearing is half of your life. The other way around, twenty percent less loading is double your life.’ With proper monitoring, operators can optimize load distribution across their fleet, extending component life while maximizing production.
But monitoring without action is just expensive data collection. The most successful operators are those who’ve learned to translate sensor data into operational decisions. This requires not just technology but organizational change, breaking down silos between monitoring, maintenance, and management teams.
In Wind Energy Operations, Early intervention makes the million-dollar difference
The economics of early intervention are compelling across every component type. The blade root bushing example from We4Ce illustrates this perfectly. With their solution, early detection means replacing just 24-30 bushings in about 24 hours of drilling work. Wait, and you’re looking at 60+ bushings and 60 hours of work. Early detection doesn’t just prevent catastrophic failure; it makes repairs faster, cheaper, and more reliable.
This principle extends throughout the turbine. Early-stage bearing damage can be addressed through targeted lubrication or minor adjustments. Incipient electrical issues can be resolved with cleaning or connection tightening. Small blade surface cracks can be repaired in a few hours before they propagate into structural damage requiring weeks of work.
Leading operators are implementing tiered response protocols based on monitoring data. Critical issues trigger immediate intervention. Developing problems are scheduled for the next maintenance window. Minor issues are monitored and addressed during routine service. This systematic approach reduces both emergency repairs and unnecessary maintenance, optimizing resource allocation across the fleet.
Turning information into action
While monitoring generates data, platforms like SkySpecs’ Horizon transform that data into operational intelligence. Josh Goryl, SkySpecs’ Chief Revenue Officer, explained their evolution at the recent Customer Forum: ‘I think where we can help our customers is getting all that data into one place.
The game-changer is integration across data types. The company is working to combine performance data with CMS data to provide valuable insights into turbine health. This approach has been informed by operators across the world, who’ve discovered that integrated platforms deliver insights that siloed data can’t.
The platform approach also addresses the reality of shrinking engineering teams managing expanding portfolios. As Goryl noted, many wind engineers are now responsible for solar and battery storage assets as well. One platform managing multiple technologies through a unified interface becomes essential for operational efficiency.
The Integration Imperative for Wind Farm Operations
The most successful operators aren’t just adopting individual technologies; they’re integrating monitoring, inspection, and repair into a seamless operational system. This integration operates at multiple levels.
At the technical level, data from various monitoring systems feeds into unified platforms that provide comprehensive asset visibility. These platforms don’t just display data; they analyze patterns, predict failures, and generate work orders.
At the organizational level, integration means breaking down barriers between departments. This cross-functional collaboration transforms O&M from a cost center into a value driver. Building your improvement roadmap For operators ready to enhance their O&M approach, the path forward involves several key steps:
Assessing the Current State of your Wind Energy Operations
Document your maintenance costs, failure rates, and downtime patterns. Identify which problems consume the most resources and which assets are most critical to your wind farm operations.
Start with targeted pilots Rather than attempting wholesale transformation, begin with focused initiatives targeting your biggest pain points. Whether it’s blade monitoring, gearbox sensors, or repair innovations, starting with your largest issue will help you see the biggest benefit.
• Invest in integration, not just technology: the most sophisticated monitoring system is worthless if its data isn’t acted upon. Ensure your organization has the processes and culture to transform data into decisions – this is the first step to profitability in your wind farm operations.
Build partnerships, not just contracts: look for technology providers and service companies willing to share knowledge, not just deliver services. The goal is building capability, not dependency.
• Measure and iterate: track the impact of each initiative on your key performance indicators. Use lessons learned to refine your approach and guide future investments.
The competitive advantage
The wind industry has reached an inflection point. With increasingly large and complex turbines, monitoring needs to adapt with it. The era of flying blind is over.
In an industry where margins continue to compress and competition intensifies, operational excellence has become a key differentiator. Those who master the integration of monitoring, inspection, and repair will thrive. Those who cling to reactive maintenance face escalating costs and declining competitiveness.
The technology exists. The business case is proven. The early adopters are already reaping the benefits. The question isn’t whether to transform your O&M approach, but how quickly you can adapt to this new reality. In the race to operational excellence, the winners will be those who act decisively to embrace the efficiency revolution reshaping wind operations.
Unless otherwise noted, images here are from We4C Rotorblade Specialist.
Contact us for help understanding your lightning damage, future risks, and how to get more uptime from your equipment.
Download the full article from PES Wind here
Find a practical guide to solving lightning problems and filing better insurance claims here
Wind Industry Operations: In Wind’s Next Chapter, Operations take center stage
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