The1603 cash grants program was allowed to expire December 31, 2011 after having been extended by Congress the previous year. The Coalition for Sensible Siting observed a failure of wind to green the economy.The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has modified it's sales pitch to Congress over the last half decade from "save the world from man-made global warming" to "jobs, jobs, jobs". Packaging your grant application in the "JOBS" wrapper during an extended economic downturn with high unemployment is a smart move. But is it honest?
Illinois: Carolyn Gerwin responds to a recent E&E story (below):
"I like to think we had something to do with the highlighted comments as we have been giving his office lots of info on the jobs issue, including my report that IL DCEO reports show that federal taxpayers are paying $8 million per job here in Illinois. That's not stimulating the economy, that's poisoning it."
Popular Treasury grant program takes hit as Boehner lashes
out at Obama admin
by John McArdle, E&E reporter
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2012
Supporters of the Treasury Department's Section 1603
renewable energy program have gone to great lengths to explain the many
differences between the popular grant-in-lieu-of-tax-credit effort and the
controversial Department of Energy loan guarantee program that was responsible
for the Solyndra debacle.
But those efforts didn't much matter to House Speaker John
Boehner (R-Ohio) today as he lumped the two programs together in a broadside
against the Obama administration over stimulus spending and the unemployment
rate.
At his weekly news conference, Boehner called the 1603
program a "Solyndra-style stimulus program" that has so far cost the
government $10 billion.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu "said it created 'tens of
thousands of jobs,' except there's no evidence to support that," Boehner
said. "Listen, the American people continue to ask the question, 'Where
are the jobs?' They deserve answers, and they deserve the truth."
The speaker's comments come as the White House has been
working to revive the 1603 program after Congress failed to extend it past last
year's Dec. 31 statutory end date.
Boehner noted that the House Energy and Commerce Committee
recently sent a document request to DOE and Treasury for information about the
precise number of jobs the 1603 program has created.
The Energy and Commerce Committee, which is also taking the
lead role in the Solyndra probe, said in its March 15 letters that
"overall, significant doubts have been raised about the [1603] program's
vetting and selection of recipients, high costs, and record of achievement in
its job growth objectives thus far, calling into question the wisdom of
President Obama's proposed extension."
The deadline for their response is today, and committee
officials said this afternoon they had yet to hear from either agency.
Boehner's comments indicate a willingness to repackage some
of the same attacks that gained so much traction during the height of the
Solyndra controversy, but there are differences between the Treasury program
and the DOE loan program, which provided a half-billion-dollar loan guarantee
to the failed solar company.
Rather than guaranteeing loans to clean energy projects, the
1603 simply allows renewable energy projects to take a 30 percent grant instead
of the existing investment tax credit or a production tax credit. The program,
which is only eligible for projects that have been built, merely changes the
timing of when the energy incentive can be claimed.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said the 1603 program doesn't
"pick winners and losers," which has been one of the main Republican
complaints against the loan program.
"I think you wouldn't have to talk to very many leaders
in the energy industry to come to the conclusion that it made a huge difference
economically and it's a tool we should have," Blumenauer said.
A DOE spokeswoman said today that the 1603 program has
supported more than 20,000 renewable energy projects, leveraging nearly $30
billion in private sector investments and creating tens of thousands of jobs in
installation, construction and operation, as well as up and down the
manufacturing supply chain.
Late last year, the Solar Energy Industries Association
(SEIA) released estimates that 37,000 additional jobs could be created in the
solar sector alone by extending the 1603 program by a year. The report found
that a five-year extension would provide more predictability and stability and
would support as many as 114,000 jobs, including more than 55,000 direct and
indirect solar workers.
But Boehner's comments today appear to give credence to the
widely held belief that with so much focus on election-year politics, any
possible extension of the 1603 program might have to wait until the lame duck
session this year (Greenwire, March 27).
Reporter Nick Juliano contributed.
How are States counting jobs? Direct, indirect and induced impact.
Minnesota: the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) weighed in on T. Boone Pickens' controversial AWA Goodhue project. DEED predicts "direct, indirect and induced" job creation based upon a model rather than upon the outcome of two decades of wind projects built in the State. Then Governor Tim Pawlenty was promoting the project at the time.
December 14, 2010 • Minnesota
DEED’s McElroy weighs in on wind farm in Goodhue County
Credit: by Arundhati
Parmar, Dolan Media Newswires, www.dolanmedia.com ~~
MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Minnesota’s outgoing economic development
commissioner is throwing his weight behind a proposed wind project in Goodhue
County while the county tries to impose restrictions on large wind-farm
development.
Dan McElroy, head of the Department of Employment and
Economic Development, sent a letter Dec. 8 expressing his “strongest support”
for a 78-megawatt wind project that he says could have a significant economic
impact.
“Not only will this project enhance Minnesota’s position as
a national leader in wind production, but it will have a major economic impact
in southeastern Minnesota,” McElroy writes.
The letter was sent to administrative law judge Kathleen
Sheehy, who is looking at the controversial project at the request of the
Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.
A Goodhue County commissioner acknowledged that jobs would
be created but said he was more concerned about residents, some of whom fear
that living too close to wind farms has negative health effects.
“Our job is to see that our citizens are protected,” said
Ted Seifert, a Goodhue County commissioner.
Those concerns led the county to adopt a strict ordinance
that, if applied by the PUC, would kill the project developed by
Minneapolis-based National Wind.
National Wind, which wants to build a 50-turbine wind farm
on behalf of AWA Goodhue LLC, sought the support of the DEED commissioner to
bolster its case before Sheehy.
“We asked for his support and are very pleased that he gave
it,” said Joe Jennings, a National Wind spokesman.
In the letter posted on PUC’s website, McElroy writes that a
DEED analysis has found that 916 jobs will be created in the first year of the
wind project’s construction. Further, between 42 and 90 jobs will be created
during the first four years of operation and beyond, according to the letter.
The numbers are based on computer models that take into
account direct, indirect and induced impact of a project.
But the employment estimates from National Wind are quite a
bit lower than DEED’s.
National Wind’s Jennings said that 100 to 150 construction
jobs are to be created over a six- to nine-month period. Another five permanent
jobs are anticipated as a result of the project.
“Our estimates are conservative estimates that are based on
direct effects of the project, such as people employed in construction,”
Jennings said. “We are comfortable with our numbers.”
A DEED spokesman said that the commissioner routinely offers
letters of support for projects that have an economic impact, but he wasn’t
sure whether McElroy was aware of National Wind’s employment estimates.
“We conducted an economic analysis of the project and felt
it was important to get our findings on the record,” said Monte Hanson, a DEED
spokesman.
Some Goodhue County residents are unhappy with McElroy’s
letter.
“I don’t know where [McElroy] got his information from and
how he reached those conclusions,” said Paul Reese, a resident of Goodhue
Township and a vocal critic of wind projects, on Tuesday. “I don’t think this
makes sense.”
Another resident was less forgiving in an e-mail to McElroy.
“Have you lost your mind?” wrote Kristi Rosenquist, who
forwarded a copy of her e-mail to Finance & Commerce. “Or is this a
political favor for someone? Not even the wind company claims more than 2-5
jobs after initial construction.”
Reese and Rosenquist are two of the residents who were
successful in getting Goodhue County commissioners to adopt a stricter wind
ordinance in October. Under the new ordinance, wind turbines need to be
constructed at a distance of 10 rotor diameters (in this case, 2,700 feet) from
the residences of landowners who have not leased their land to wind developers.
National Wind representatives repeatedly have insisted said
that the 10-RD requirement would kill the project. They have asked the PUC to
ignore the local ordinance in granting its applications for a site permit and
certificate of need.
But the PUC has twice declined to make a decision on AWA’s
application.
Instead, commissioners have shifted the burden on to Judge
Sheehy with the Office of Administrative Hearings. One of the issues that
Sheehy has to sort out is a term contained in a Minnesota statute. The law
requires PUC to apply stricter local wind ordinances unless there is “good
cause” not to.
As the case goes to a contested hearing, the goal of
National Wind is to get a quick and speedy resolution – within 60 days. The
project could have accessed a $37 million federal grant if AWA Goodhue could
begin construction this year. Now the developers have to wait to get a
production tax credit.
Seifert, the Goodhue County commissioner, questions the true
economic benefit highlighted by McElroy if taxpayers are subsidizing
businesses.
“[McElroy] is in charge of developing jobs throughout the
state, so I don’t have a problem with the commissioner putting in his two bits
about the project, but how much of this is plain tax subsidy?” Seifert said.
By the numbers
916
Number of direct, indirect and induced jobs from the Goodhue
wind project
Source: Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic
Development
100-150
Direct construction jobs created from the same project
Source: project developer National Wind
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