Community | February 09, 2010 | 3 comments

New Wind Farms in the U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs

source: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/wind-power-equal-job-power/story?id=9759949

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JanforGore
Despite all the talk of green jobs, the overwhelming majority of stimulus money spent on wind power has gone to foreign companies, according to a new report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University's School of Communication in Washington, D.C.

The American Wind Energy Association came out with a report last week that showed a drop in wind manufacturing jobs in the United States for last year. But during that time, enough wind farms have been built to power 2.4 million homes and create lots of new, green jobs.

Nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been spent on wind power, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4 million homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly 80 percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines.

So Where Are the Jobs?

"Most of the jobs are going overseas," said Russ Choma at the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He analyzed which foreign firms had accepted the most stimulus money. "According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S."

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the flow of money to foreign companies an outrage, because the stimulus, he said, was intended to create jobs inside the United States.

"This is one of those stories in Washington that when you tell people five miles outside the Beltway, or anywhere else in America, they cannot believe it," Schumer told ABC News, "It makes people lose faith in government, and it frankly infuriates me."

Matt Rogers, the senior adviser to the Secretary of Energy for the Recovery Act, denied there was a problem.

"The recovery act is creating jobs in the U.S. for American workers," said Rogers, "That is what the recovery act is about, that is what it is doing. Every dollar from the recovery act is going to create jobs for the American workers here in the U.S."
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green
  2. tags:
    Politics,  Stimulus,  Green Jobs,  Wind Power
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3 comments // New Wind Farms in the U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs

  • TiffanyFelicienne
    • 0
      TiffanyFelicienne  

    • Some of these things take time to develop. Companies don't receive money and then start hiring the next day. I am recruiting for a small wind turbine innovator and we will be hiring at least 100 highly paid US-based employees this year. I've talked to another small wind turbine company and they are also planning to hire quite a few new employees as well.

      When you are talking about high technology industries, the cheapest jobs will often be offshored however the highest paid / creative jobs usually stay here in the USA. If that ever starts to change, don't blame the private sector... blame the education system.

    • 1 year ago
  • CreditFigaro
  • JanforGore
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