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.