Mar 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Christopher Bjorke The Bismarck Tribune, N.D.



A "buy American" proposal for wind energy funding pending in Washington could slow development and hurt job creation, according to some in the industry.

"At a time when the construction unemployment rate is nearly 25 percent and the manufacturing unemployment rate is 13 percent, this proposal would cost 50,000 American workers their jobs," according to a statement by the head of the American Wind Energy Association, Denise Bode.

The stipulation put forward by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and supported by three other senators, would cut off funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to wind energy developers that use foreign-made components. According to Schumer's office, $1 billion in ARRA funding has gone to foreign companies.

The Senate proposal is meant to create jobs in the United States, but according to AWEA, it would "torpedo one of the most successful job creation efforts of the Recovery Act."

 Dennis Randall of Schuff Steel, the company that plans to build a Bismarck facility to make wind towers, said the proposal was a frequent topic of conversation at a recent wind conference he attended. Schuff is an American company that has been awarded ARRA tax incentives to bring wind-related manufacturing to North Dakota. However, Randall said it could hurt the market for towers if it slows the development of wind farms.

"Demand could slow down, pending the outcome," he said. Schuff is in the process of lining up customers for towers, but the expected growth of demand could be stunted. "That expected ramp-up has been put into question," he said.

Tim Simons, chief executive of Mandan-based developer Crownbutte, said that the majority of turbine components are foreign-made, and attaching new strings to federal funding would further complicate an already drawn-out process of bringing new energy projects online.

"In the wind industry they're always creating bottlenecks for us," Simons said. "You go inside those turbines and it's all foreign-made stuff."

The perception that recovery money is being funneled directly overseas has been exaggerated, said Jan Johnson, spokeswoman for Iberdrola Renewables, which has a 149-megawatt wind farm near Rugby.

"That's simply not the truth," Johnson said. "Every single dollar given to us has been reinvested in the U.S."

ARRA funding "saved the day" after financial markets collapsed in 2008, she said, and has been a part of Iberdrola's plans to invest $6 billion in renewable energy by 2012.

One of the bigger developers of wind farms in the state, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, has been erecting wind turbines since 2003, well before the stimulus spending was passed in 2009. The components it uses originate in U.S. plants like LM Glasfiber in Grand Forks and DMI Industries in West Fargo.

"All the wind projects we've been involved with since 2003 have been GE-produced components," said Basin spokesman Daryl Hill, referring to General Electric, a major domestic producer of wind parts.

Elizabeth Salerno, an analyst for the AWEA, said her organization and the Schumer proposal both share the goal of increasing domestic manufacturing jobs in wind power -- which provide nearly

50 percent of the U.S. demand for components -- but the buy American requirement takes away the certainty desired by investors in new projects.

"It creates a chilling effect on the ability to raise capital," she said. "In the long-term, certainty is what drives investment."

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