Another Oregon energy tax credit scam

Investigative reporting by Ted Sickinger of the Oregonian, relayed to us by our Portland reporter Bojack, covering the tax scam beat:

You can argue about tax giveaways for “green” this-and-that, but just about everybody would agree that the companies that reap the benefit of those subsidy programs should be required to cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s required to get the handouts. In the case of a huge windmill project out in eastern Oregon, from all appearances that wasn’t done — quite the contrary — as our friend Ted Sickinger of the O reveals here. His exposé shows that three $10 million tax credits were approved for a single project that appears to have deserved only one. 

“Because of this information, we do need to revisit this one,” said Kyleen Stone, deputy director at the Energy Department. “We are going to do some work and actually legitimately look at it and review our determinations. We need some time to review all the facts.” 

Translation: “Okay, you busted us.” Innocent mistake, or active scam by the state bureaucrats? Remember, this is the Oregon Energy Department, the people who brought us Cylviagate. That bureau is nothing but trouble, and if we had to bet, we’d put money on active scam. Kudos to Sickinger, one of a small handful of real journalists left in Portlandia. It’s probably worth subscribing to the dead tree paper just to keep that guy from jumping over to government flackdom. 

Money that could have gone to higher education – or at least to help higher ed pay for the subsidies for Rob Mullens’ athletic department.

And don’t forget Sickinger’s remarkable 2011 piece on how Oregon taxpayer’s ended up funding Bellotti’s $500K a year PERS scam, in part for pay he got from Nike. 2/24/13.