http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/03/stimulus-
suspension-would-put-85000-wind-jobs-at-risk-industry?cmpid=WindNL-
Thursday-March25-2010
http://tinyurl.com/yj6yqrb
March 8, 2010
Stimulus Suspension Would Put 85,000 Wind Jobs at Risk
by Carl Levesque, AWEA
AWEA and the wind energy industry reacted strongly to an initiative
by four Senators that would suspend crucial renewable energy
development incentives in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
that the industry views as a huge success and a lifeline in the
economic crisis.
The four Senators—Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.),
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) — on Wednesday urged
the Obama Administration to suspend the U.S. Treasury grant program
(offered in lieu of the production tax credit and investment tax
credit) indefinitely because of concerns that some of the funds may
be going to foreign companies. But the notion is completely
erroneous, said AWEA, which pointed out that by law stimulus funds
must be spent in the U.S. — and that the dollars being invested in
the wind industry are creating and sustaining jobs at wind projects
across the country.
Suspending the program, in fact, would have a highly negative effect
on U.S. jobs, AWEA said. “At a time when the construction
unemployment rate is nearly 25% and the manufacturing unemployment
rate is 13%, this proposal could cost 85,000 American workers their
jobs,” AWEA CEO Denise Bode said in a statement. “This proposal would
torpedo one of the most successful job creation efforts of the
Recovery Act, which has already preserved half of the 85,000 American
jobs in the U.S. wind industry.”
More ..
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
