The American Wind Energy Association, in its annual report to be released on Tuesday, said the amount of capacity added last year, 9,900 megawatts, was the largest on record, and was 18 percent above the capacity added in 2008, also a banner year.The group said the growth of wind power was helped by the federal stimulus package that passed a year ago, which extended a tax credit and provided other investment incentives for the industry.
Here is the report:
4Q09 –
A Democratic senator is calling on the Obama administration to reject an expected request for economic stimulus money for a $1.5 billion West Texas wind energy project.The joint venture between U.S. and Chinese energy companies will be financed largely by China’s export-import bank.
But Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says the project organizers reportedly are planning to ask for 30 percent financing — or $450 million — from the federal stimulus program designed to produce U.S. jobs.
Yet, all of the 240 wind turbines on 36,000 acres in West Texas will be made in a plant in China, producing Chinese jobs. So, Schumer is writing Energy Secretary Steven Chu, urging the administration to reject a request for a federal grant should one arrive.
Senator Schumer’s letter to Secretary Chu is below.
A Spanish paper that claimed support for green jobs “may destroy two jobs for every one created” has been debunked by an official publication of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The paper’s conclusions — led by Exxon-funded libertarian Gabriel Calzada — have been cited by GOP leaders, Fox News, right-wing columnists, conservative think tanks, and Big Oil front groups to attack President Obama’s green economic agenda. However, the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) finds that the Spanish authors’ claim that renewable support kills jobs “is not supported by their work.“
NREL –
