8 out of 10 stimulus dollars go overseas
8 out of 10 stimulus dollars go overseas
Date: Friday, March 05, 2010 4:36 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 2089 -- 3/05/2010 >>>>>
web version
http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2010/03/05/8-out-of-10-stimulus-dollars-go-overseas/
The good news is that the Obama stimulus money targeted for green industries
is creating jobs. The bad news is that most of the jobs are in China. Two
video reports describe what is happening. There are companion articles to the
videos that fill in more details of the story. The video and text articles
aren t the same so to get the complete picture check both of them out.
Nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act has been spent on wind power, funding
the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4 million
homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly
80 percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers
of wind turbines.
So Where Are the Jobs?
"Most of the jobs are going overseas," said Russ Choma at
the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He analyzed which
foreign firms had accepted the most stimulus money.
"According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been
created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been
created in the U.S."
New Wind Farms in the U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs, ABC News
Reports, Jonathan Karl, Feb. 9, 2010
article:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/wind-power-equal-job-power/story?id=9759949
video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKbh0rS2_fw
The story continued when an ABC News affiliate in San Diego did a follow up
story with some very clever investigative reporting. Who would have ever
thought of actually going to an office of one of the companies that are
receiving billions of taxpayer dollars?
A-Power Energy Generation Systems is one example. The company
lists a downtown San Diego office suite as its business and
mailing address in filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. However, that office suite is vacant.
Foreign Firms Benefitting From U.S. Green Energy Funding,
KGTV 10, February 8, 2010
http://www.10news.com/news/22501136/detail.html
video and article on same page
Foreign Firms Benefitting From U.S. Green Energy Funding, February 8, 2010
These stories were originated by an organization called the "Investigative
Reporting Workshop", which is affiliated with the School of Communication at
American University. They have an article on the website that adds more fuel
to the fire: "Renewable energy money still going abroad, despite criticism
from Congress, by Russ Choma, February 8th, 2010.
The Workshop was the first to report last October that more than 80
percent of the first $1 billion in grants to wind energy companies
went to foreign firms. Since then, the administration has stopped
making announcements of new grants to wind, solar and geothermal
companies, but has handed out another $1 billion, bringing the
total given out to $2.1 billion and the total that went to
companies based overseas to more than 79 percent.
In fact, the largest grant made under the program so far, a $178
million payment on Dec. 29, went to Babcock & Brown, a bankrupt
Australian company that built a Texas wind farm using turbines
made by a Japanese company.
Of course the Chinese stuck their hooks into Texas also.
The same day the Workshop s first reported on this story a
consortium of American and Chinese companies announced a deal to
build a $1.5 billion wind farm in Texas, using imported Chinese
turbines. Company officials said they planned to collect $450
million in stimulus grants for the project. The deal would
create dozens of jobs in the U.S. and thousands in China. The
news provoked outrage among lawmakers, particularly after the
Energy Department seemed to take a neutral stance, declining
to say whether it would reject such an application.
The tragedy with all of this is that most of the money isn t going to go to
home grown crooks -- it s going to fund scams in other countries.
Americans will get a few of the leftover crumbs when and if the foreign
companies decide to hire workers to install the equipment, but even then there
is no guarantee that they will hire Americans -- remember the Texas bridge
welders from Italy?
If Obama and Congress insist of throwing billions of dollars around, why
aren t they making sure that the only pigs at the trough are U.S.
citizens?
LINKS
http://www.vdare.com/sanchez/091123_italian_welders.htm
Italian Welders Work On Dallas Bridge -- Texans Remain Jobless
http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/about/
Investigative Reporting Workshop
http://www.american.edu/soc/
School of Communication at American University
ARTICLES COPIED BELOW
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/wind-power-equal-job-power/story?id=9759949
New Wind Farms in the U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs
http://www.10news.com/news/22501136/detail.html
Foreign Firms Benefitting From U.S. Green Energy Funding
http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/wind-energy-funds-going-overseas/story/renewable-energy-money-still-going-abroad/
Renewable energy money still going abroad, despite criticism from Congress
(text only -- go to web page for charts and graphs)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKbh0rS2_fw
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/wind-power-equal-job-power/story?id=9759949
New Wind Farms in the U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs Millions Have Been Invested in
Wind Farms, but That Hasn't Brought Jobs By JONATHAN KARL
Feb. 9, 2010
Despite all the talk of green jobs, the overwhelming majority of stimulus
money spent on wind power has gone to foreign companies, according to a new
report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University's
School of Communication in Washington, D.C.
Nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has
been spent on wind power, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to
power 2.4 million homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly 80
percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines.
So Where Are the Jobs?
"Most of the jobs are going overseas," said Russ Choma at the Investigative
Reporting Workshop. He analyzed which foreign firms had accepted the most
stimulus money. "According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been
created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S."
Even with the infusion of so much stimulus money, a recent report by American
Wind Energy Association showed a drop in U.S. wind manufacturing jobs last
year.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the flow of money to foreign companies an
outrage, because the stimulus, he said, was intended to create jobs inside the
United States.
"This is one of those stories in Washington that when you tell people five
miles outside the Beltway, or anywhere else in America, they cannot believe
it," Schumer told ABC News, "It makes people lose faith in government, and it
frankly infuriates me."
Matt Rogers, the senior adviser to the Secretary of Energy for the Recovery
Act, denied there was a problem.
"The recovery act is creating jobs in the U.S. for American workers," said
Rogers, "That is what the recovery act is about, that is what it is doing.
Every dollar from the recovery act is going to create jobs for the American
workers here in the U.S."
How Did This Happen?
Several of the large European turbine manufacturers had limited manufacturing
facilities in the United States, but there was nothing in the stimulus plan
that required that the turbines, or any other equipment needed for the wind
farms, be made here, said Rogers. There are strict "Buy America" provisions in
the Recovery Act, but this Green Energy Stimulus initiative turned the
existing tax credits into cash grants, bypassing the "Buy America" provision.
Iberdrola, one of the largest operators of renewable energy worldwide, is
based in Spain and has received the most U.S. stimulus dollars -- $577
million. It buys some of its turbines from another Spanish manufacturer,
Gamesa, which has a U.S. connection. Gamesa has two facilities to manufacture
turbine blades in Pennsylvania, but the company said the market forced it to
temporarily lay off nearly 100 workers.
Eric Sheesley was one of those laid off from the Gamesa plant before
Thanksgiving. "When we're employing other countries, we can't feed our kids at
home. It gets hard you know." Sheesley had a glimmer of hope when a letter
arrived this week telling him to report back to work next week.
One reason so much money is going overseas is that there is not much of a wind
power industry in the United States -- only two major American manufacturers
make wind turbines: General Electric Energy and Clipper Wind based in
Carpinteria, Calif. Even those companies do a significant amount of their
manufacturing overseas. General Electric told ABC News that GE's Renewable
Energy business has 3,000 employees around the world, 1,350 here in the United
States.
Schumer said the way to revitalize the domestic wind power industry and to
create green jobs is to require that at least some of the turbine equipment to
be made in the United States.
An American Farm With Chinese Jobs
Perhaps the most controversial wind project is one that has yet to receive
stimulus money.
A Chinese company called A-power is helping to build a massive $1.5 billion
wind farm in West Texas. The consortium behind the project expects to get $450
million in stimulus money.
Walt Hornaday, an American partner on the project, said it would create some
American jobs. "Our estimation," he said, "is that we are going to have on the
order of 300 construction jobs just within the fence of the project."
But that's in addition to 2,000 manufacturing jobs -- many of them in China.
Lauren Reynolds, a reporter at ABC's San Diego affiliate 10 News, paid a visit
to the vacant office of A-power.
To read more about how wind energy companies in San Diego are forced to spend
their federal stimulus dollars abroad, go to today's San Diego Tribune and the
Watch Dog Institute's Web page.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.10news.com/news/22501136/detail.html
Foreign Firms Benefitting From U.S. Green Energy Funding
POSTED: 12:38 pm PST February 8, 2010
UPDATED: 7:22 pm PST February 8, 2010
SAN DIEGO -- Cannon Power Group, based in Rancho Santa Fe, is among the
minority of American firms benefitting from millions of dollars in economic
stimulus grants dedicated to green energy.
The company's white turbines, which generate wind energy, dot the landscape
along the Colombia River in Washington state. The project, known as Windy
Flats, is one of the largest wind projects in the U.S. and will be funded by
an expected $170 million in green energy stimulus money.
"If you build the project, then the grants will come," explained Gary Hardke,
President of Cannon Power Group.
Hardke said the economic stimulus money is allowing his company to expand its
project and put more people to work. He also said he is not surprised that
American firms are falling behind on cashing in on the stimulus money.
Of the $2 billion set aside for green energy, three quarters have gone to
foreign firms.
Hardke cited foreign firms' preparedness to take advantage of the U.S.
government program.
"It's hard to be a successful wind energy developer without a big checkbook,"
he explained.
The big check book in previous decades has been opened by European governments
who have invested heavily in wind energy in the past. For example, Spain is a
world leader. On a windy day, half the energy needed can come from wind.
"They've poured billions of dollars into renewable energy over the last two
decades," Hardke pointed out.
At the same time, past U.S. government support has wavered. Now that it's the
U.S. investing heavily, Hardke said foreign-based firms are more established
to collect the money.
A-Power Energy Generation Systems is one example. The company lists a downtown
San Diego office suite as its business and mailing address in filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. However, that office suite is vacant.
The company is based in China and is part of a consortium building a wind farm
in Texas that may qualify for federal stimulus money. The project is
reportedly generating 300 jobs in the U.S., 800 jobs in China.
Foreign firms like A-Power are not barred from the stimulus money as one basic
qualification is met, according to Hardke.
"The site of the project has to be in the United States," he said.
Cannon is developing wind power in Baja California that won't qualify for
stimulus money.
For its Washington state project, while the firm is American, that does not
mean all stimulus money it receives will stay in America.
Of the $19.4 million already collected from the federal government, Hardke
said about half was paid to Siemens, a German firm which makes the wind
turbines.
Hardke said the main U.S. manufacturers were out of stock or did not make the
size that Cannon needed.
NOTE: This story was reported by the Watchdog Institute in a collaborative
effort with the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University in
Washington, D.C., and 10News. A version of this story will be published in The
San Diego Union-Tribune Tuesday. For more on the Watchdog Institute's story,
visit www.watchdoginstitute.org/story.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/wind-energy-funds-going-overseas/story/renewable-energy-money-still-going-abroad/
(text only -- go to web page for charts and graphs)
Renewable energy money still going abroad, despite criticism from Congress
By Russ Choma
Monday, February 8th, 2010 | ShareThis
The Investigative Reporting Workshop reported this story in coordination with
ABC's World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer and the Watchdog Institute, a non-
profit investigative journalism group based at San Diego State
University.foreign vs. domestic
Money from the 2009 stimulus bill to help support the renewable energy
industry continues to flow overseas, despite Congressional criticism and calls
for change, according to a new analysis of the program by the Investigative
Reporting Workshop.
The Workshop was the first to report last October that more than 80 percent of
the first $1 billion in grants to wind energy companies went to foreign firms.
Since then, the administration has stopped making announcements of new grants
to wind, solar and geothermal companies, but has handed out another $1
billion, bringing the total given out to $2.1 billion and the total that went
to companies based overseas to more than 79 percent.
In fact, the largest grant made under the program so far, a $178 million
payment on Dec. 29, went to Babcock & Brown, a bankrupt Australian company
that built a Texas wind farm using turbines made by a Japanese company.
The same day the Workshop s first reported on this story a consortium of
American and Chinese companies announced a deal to build a $1.5 billion wind
farm in Texas, using imported Chinese turbines. Company officials said they
planned to collect $450 million in stimulus grants for the project.
The deal would create dozens of jobs in the U.S. and thousands in China.
The news provoked outrage among lawmakers, particularly after the Energy
Department seemed to take a neutral stance, declining to say whether it would
reject such an application.
The key word is 'jobs'
"In all due respect I remind the secretary (of Energy) there is a four-letter
word associated with the stimulus -- J-O-B-S," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.,
told ABC News who interviewed him for a report done in coordination with the
Workshop s ongoing investigation. "Very few jobs here, lots of jobs in China.
That is not what I intended or any other legislator who voted for the stimulus
intended."
If companies want to buy Chinese turbines, they can, Schumer said, but they
shouldn t do it with tax dollars that were earmarked for jumpstarting an
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