http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/grassley-080812Sen. Charles Grassley left little room for doubt about where he stands on extending wind energy tax credits, which await action in Congress.
Grassley took up the issue Tuesday during two town hall meetings in southeast Iowa with passion and the no-nonsense rhetoric he is known for after nearly 32 years in the U.S. Senate.
"I'm the author of the wind energy tax credit of 1992, and there were people from outside the state came into Iowa and issued a press release that the Republican candidate for president was opposed to wind energy, and I felt it was just like a knife in my back, as the author of the bill, without even being consulted about it," he said during a town hall meeting at the Greater Burlington Partnership offices in Burlington.
...
"And then, would you think at a time of 8.2 percent unemployment there would be any question that you wouldn't want to lay off 4,000 more people in the state of Iowa and probably 25,000 people nationwide," Grassley said in Donnellson after being thanked by a representative of Siemens for all of his work on the behalf of wind energy. "But that's kind of what's at stake here, and when people come into Iowa and say it shouldn't be renewed and without consulting me, I consider that an insult. It just bothers me something terrible."
Grassley said he suspects Senate Republicans opposing the wind energy tax credit leaked the information that Romney supports letting it expire.
"I don't know who's behind it and I'm going to find out who's behind it, and expose them and tell them how stupid their policy is," Grassley said to conclude his town hall in Donnellson.
