Wind-energy jobs falling off as tax credit set to expire
Nov 9 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Leslie Brooks
Suzukamo Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
The number of jobs in the U.S. clean energy sector is
dwindling as time continues to run out on a federal tax credit
that could revive the sector's job growth, a green-energy
business group reported Thursday, Nov. 8.
For the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, there were more
than 10,800 jobs in the U.S. clean energy sector and related
industries, according to Environmental Entrepreneurs, a group of
800 business leaders who support green energy. The group is an
offshoot of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a major
environmental advocacy group.
The third-quarter numbers, which include jobs related to such
things as wind and solar power and energy efficiency, are down
70 percent from the 37,000 reported in the second quarter.
And the third-quarter number is only one-fourth the 46,000
clean energy jobs that existed at the beginning of the year, the
group's report said.
The group does not have year-over-year comparisons because it
only started tracking jobs in September 2011.
Minnesota was the eighth largest clean energy job producing
state last quarter, with 390 new jobs announced, the report
said. California, New York and Oregon were the top green job
states for the quarter, according to the report.
But Minnesota also lost jobs last quarter. WindLogics Inc., a
St. Paul company that uses sophisticated weather forecasting to
help developers find the best locations for wind farms, cut 10
employees from its 52-employee workforce because wind
developers had ceased starting new projects, its CEO, Mark
Ahlstrom, said in July.
With a federal production tax credit for wind energy projects
set to expire on Dec. 31, there were no wind projects announced
anywhere in the country in the third quarter, said Judith
Albert, executive director of Environmental Entrepreneurs.
The lack of new projects had a ripple effect because it meant
no new orders for wind turbine parts or related equipment or
services, she said.
The wind industry is looking for a one-year stopgap extension
of the tax credit for 2013, so Congress would have more time
next year to consider a longer-term solution, Jacob Susman,
founder and CEO of OwnEnergy, a wind development company in
Brooklyn, N.Y., said during a telephone news conference.
But even if the production tax credit, or PTC, gets a
last-minute reprieve from Congress this year, it will take
developers months to get back on track, Susman said.
"If we're going to avoid falling off the jobs cliff, we need
to get going with extending the PTC, pronto," he said.
The Democratic-controlled Senate has passed a bill for a
one-year extension, but there is no corresponding legislation in
the House, which is controlled by a Republican Party mostly
hostile to tax credits for renewable energy.
President Barack Obama, who was re-elected to a second term
Tuesday, has supported extending the tax credit.
The tax credits have a history of off-again, on-again
renewals over the past decade that has hobbled the growth of
U.S. renewable energy. But despite that, wind farms now have the
capacity to provide up to 50 gigawatts of electricity, or enough
power to light up nearly 13 million homes, according to the
American Wind Energy Association.
Leslie Brooks Suzukamo can be reached at 651-228-5475. Follow
him at twitter.com/suzukamo.