Thursday, February 18, 2010

Stimulus wind farm cash not bringing jobs to USA

"Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future --jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced."
Barack Obama, January 8, 2010.

Well, nobody is perfect. Especially the Chosen One. ABC News says why.

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."

Even with the infusion of so much stimulus money, a recent report by American Wind Energy Association showed a drop in U.S. wind manufacturing jobs last year.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who like the other Democrats in the Senate voted for the stimulus bill, called it an outrage.

Related post:

California Collision: Shiloh Wind Farm

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