Here's a chart from OpenSecrets.org that shows this year's contributions from oil and gas and the energy sectors into the coffers of the 2012 U.S. presidential candidates.
The chart speaks for itself and should come as no surprise given the state in which Perry governs. But Texas is America's leading wind state, as well.
In Rick Perry's words, "[L]evel the competitive playing field among all energy producers. As the governor of the nation’s leading producer of wind energy, I clearly believe there is an important role for green sources of energy as a part of our generation mix. The fact is, every energy producer receives incentives and subsidies that cost taxpayers and distort the marketplace.”
Reading between the lines of phrases like "level the competitive playing field," I think it's safe to say that Perry wants to get rid of subsidies for wind and other energy sources.
It looks like Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry agrees with Jigar Shah, the CEO of the Carbon War Room and founder of SunEdison. Shah said in a recent blog entry, "The federal government should get rid of permanent energy subsidies for all energy sources, including fossil fuels, nuclear, solar, wind, biofuels. This would force everyone to innovate, compete and win -- or lose -- on their own merits."
Shah continues: "The truth is that permanent energy subsidies do more harm than good. They don’t encourage established energy providers to innovate ('Why bother when we get free money from the government?') and they don’t force new providers to rapidly scale their innovations. Permanent subsidies are just plain bad for business -- and history has shown us time and time again, solutions to big problems that are bad for business have no hope of success."