American Jobs at Risk (Approximately 40,000 of Them)

September 25th, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Wind turbine photo via Duke Energy

On December 31^st of this year, the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy is set to expire. If we wake up on January 1^st without an extension, we will be throwing away years of hard work setting up important renewable energy industries that help provide clean electricity, energy independence, and most importantly, jobs.

A recent DOE report indicates that over $14 billion was invested in wind power project installations just in 2011. Current wind power capacity in the US is over 50,000 MW (enough to power 13 million homes), and six states now get over 10% of their electricity from wind power.

But the most important fact to take away from the report is that the wind industry is a legitimate player in the US job market. Business has been booming; just ask states like Iowa, California, Texas, and Oregon. They all rely on the wind industry to provide jobs to wind turbine manufacturers, installers and regulators. Even farmers are getting in on the profits by leasing their land to install wind turbines. Combine all of this with the fact that 70% of wind power equipment is being provided by American manufacturers, not foreign competitors, and we have the beginnings of a prosperous, domestic clean energy economy.

But if the PTC expires, this foundation will go to waste. Companies will be forced to shut down and lay off hardworking Americans. The DOE report estimates that around half of the nation’s 75,000 wind industry employees will lose their jobs. The companies that have enough money to survive will be outsourced to the highest bidder. Jobs and revenue will be sent overseas to countries that are willing to acknowledge that renewable energy is here to stay, something that our government has been hesitant to do.

While we would rather support proven, reliable, and often toxic sources of energy, countries like China and Germany are investing record amounts of money into wind and solar projects. By letting the PTC expire, opponents incorrectly say that it will “create a level playing field” where the most efficient providers of energy will eventually win out.

However, allowing our home grown companies to compete against the likes of coal, oil, and natural gas is not a fair fight. Those industries are also heavily subsidized by the government, often in the name of creating energy independence through our domestic fuel sources. Government subsidies offered for decades allowed fossil fuels to become the power source of choice, so why not give wind power the same chance? Furthermore, the health and climate costs of dirty energy is a very real, if indirect, subsidy given to fossil fuel energy sources.

The Clean Energy Victory Bonds Act of 2012, recently introduced by Rep. Bob Filner of California, would extend the PTC and aim to give American citizens the opportunity to buy bonds that will give wind power and other renewable solutions the chance that they deserve. The bonds would be available for as little as $25 and would have a very competitive rate of return. In order to support the burgeoning domestic renewable energy market, pieces of legislation like this will be essential.

Abandoning American companies that have worked for years to build their businesses would be devastating for thousand of American families and the American economy. In a time when we need stability the most, throwing away competitive American jobs and a blossoming clean energy economy is not the answer. Extending the PTC and supporting renewable energy projects like the Clean Energy Victory Bonds Act will show workers in the wind and solar industries that the American government is serious about creating a clean energy economy and the jobs and revenue that it provides.

Matthew Jennings is Green America’s Clean Energy Victory Bonds Outreach Fellow. He graduated from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill this May with a degree in Geography and a minor in Environmental Studies.

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

Tags: Wind Energy Jobs, wind jobs, Wind PTC

About the Author

Guest Contributor is many, many people. We publish a number of guest posts from experts in a large variety of fields. This is our contributor account for those special people. :D

http://www.facebook.com/people/Stan-Stein/1756064509 Stan Stein

Yet ANOTHER grasshopper and the ant cartoon America stars in.
While Europe, India, China and other populations are planning for their future, we are burning thru ours at a rampant rate, just like w have burned thru everything, like a big spoiled child…..who’s Dad, in this case was for the most part, FDR.
Plain and simple, we may LOOK like a kind and generous country when it comes to giving away resources and money we obviously steal from the taxpayers without so much as a vote from our congressmen and senators on our behalf, just so we can buy other countries into liking us……but NOW, especially on the subject of renewable power, our leaders are nothing but imbiciles…..what do YOU call “leaders” who are the reason we are failing as a country?
- Bob_Wallace
  
  FDR was a wonderful president. He hauled our butts out of the depression brought to us by Hoover and the under-regulated financial industry. (We got another taste of that thanks to Reagan and Bush.) He also won WWII.
  
  And FDR put us on the path to have a more secure personal future. We don’t have to “shop at the company store” and crawl to the gutter to die any longer as big business would prefer.
  
  Now, if you’d like to apply the label of imbecile on people like McConnell Bohner, Inhofe and most of our other Republican politicians, I’ll join you.
http://www.facebook.com/jeff.king.14224 Jeff King

That Clean energy bond is an amazing idea and I hope it goes through, please keep us up to date on its progression
- http://www.facebook.com/matthew.t.peffly Matthew Todd Peffly
  
  Go to the site and follow thru to ping your reps, and go ahead and commit to buying some bonds.
Pingback: Clean Energy Victory Bonds in Clean Technica «