Almost  half a billion dollars in government tax credits will expire at the end of this year unless Congress renews them. Without that aid, solar and wind power companies may curtail planned expansions, jobs and R&D.  Greg Wetstone of the American Wind Energy Association predicts losses of more than 75,000 jobs and potentially over $11 billion in investment if Congress allows its production tax credit to expire.   A number of wind power companies such as  A-Power Energy Generation Systems, Ltd. ,  Vestas and Gamesa could be affected.   In addition,  since the price of oil has plummted 35% in the last 2 months,  the price of energy as a commodity is coming down and will put pricing pressure on alternative energy sources making them less attractive to deploy.    For wind energy to continue to grow and proliferate and become more efficient,  we unfortunately need oil to continue to stay above $100 for the forseeable future,  otherwise there will be a gravitation back to non-renewable energy and the recent progress will stall.