Earth Equity News

Short Circuit Looms for Promising Wind Energy Industry. By Leslie Brooks Suzukamo, PioneerPress, August 14, 2010. "A lack of a national energy policy will slow wind development nationwide... Wind developers are watching the calendar... Federal production tax credits for wind energy projects expire [in 2012]. Projects must be producing power or 'spinning,' to use the industry's parlance, by the end of the year or investors lose the tax write-off... Congress does tend to renew the credits, but usually late in the year and only a year at a time. That triggers a boom-bust cycle as developers race the clock... The wind industry supported 85,000 jobs across the country last year, and there were 39 new, expanded or announced turbine component facilities in 2009. Compared with the nation's 11.7 million manufacturing jobs, that's modest. But more component manufacturers would establish U.S. plants if the country had long-term renewable energy policies that will create a steady market, according to the American Wind Energy Association."