Friday, February 12, 2010

Obama's Stimulus Creating Green Jobs Overseas

Although Barack Obama and other Democrats touted the $787 billion stimulus package as a way to create green jobs that would put Americans back to work, new reports show the spending package has mostly created green jobs for foreign workers.

U.S. Department of Energy statistics show 79 percent of the $2.1 billion in stimulus money allocated for wind energy has been paid to foreign manufacturers.

The Spanish company Iberdrola has received $443 million; the Portuguese company EDP has received $229 million; and the British company Terra Firma, which bought a large wind farm in western Pennsylvania, received $42 million.

Analysts worry the stimulus funds will also help create manufacturing jobs in China, and a Texas consortium’s plans to build a wind farm that primarily will rely on Chinese-made turbines using $450 million in stimulus money underscores this fear

A report from the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University found 80 percent of the stimulus money had created 6,000 jobs, and only a small percentage of those jobs went to American workers.
Only two American companies ̶ General Electric Energy and Clipper Wind ̶ are major wind turbine manufacturers, and the American Wind Energy Associations has said the United States saw a drop in the number of wind turbine manufacturing jobs last year.

Newsmax - Obama's Stimulus Creating Green Jobs Overseas

No comments:

Post a Comment