American wind industry hits back at Recovery Act jobs claims

February 12, 2010

Wind companies like Iberdrola Renewables, behind this wind farm in California, may be foreign owned but are employing thousands of US workers to develop projects here, the AWEA argues

The wind industry has hit back against claims that $2 billion in federal economic stimulus money awarded to wind companies is not creating new jobs for US workers.

The row was sparked by an ABC World News story about the American Recovery Act and the wind industry on Tuesday night.

The story had suggested that since many companies developing wind projects in the US are foreign-owned firms, that the Recovery Act funding was not creating American jobs.

The American Wind Energy Association accused ABC and its reporting partners at American University of failing to understand “the way the global economy works”.

In a statement issued yesterday, the AWEA pointed out that foreign investment in the US economy was a good thing.

It explained that the Recovery Act funding was going to companies operating within the US, installing wind farms within this country, thereby creating American construction, engineering, installation, transportation and operation & maintenance jobs, “just when we needed them”.

Denise Bode, CEO of the Association, said in the statement: “The American wind industry is proud of its record of creating and sustaining American jobs — 85,000 so far, even during this recession.

“We are proud of all of our members who are investing in the US wind energy market and creating American jobs because they see great opportunity here. We are proud that economic Recovery Act funding is going only to companies who have invested in the United States to create American jobs,” Ms Bode added.

The AWEA suggested that had the Recovery Act not bolstered the US wind industry, the sector would have lost up to 40,000 American jobs in 2009.

We are proud that economic Recovery Act funding is going only to companies who have invested in the United States” – Denise Bode, AWEA

Although there are some large foreign-owned wind development companies operating in the US, such as Spanish-owned Iberdrola Renewables, the wind industry dismissed the ABC comment that there was “not much of a wind industry” here, stating that 85,000 people are employed in the American wind industry.

The AWEA suggested that the problem was that only 53% of the wind turbine components within new US wind farms was made by American companies, and that this was a problem with support for US wind manufacturing.

The Association wants to see a long-term policy support for the wind industry in the form of a nationwide Renewable Electricity Standard.