Associated Press: Wind power execs: Tax credit are needed to keep jobs
On June 5, 2012, the Associated Press reported from the American Wind Energy Association’s WINDPOWER 2012 Conference and Exhibition on the impacts that the wind industry is seeing from the pending expiration of the production tax credit (PTC).
The AP quotes several wind industry leaders in the article:
“The issue is, the longer you wait the more critical this tax becomes,” said Jan Blittersdorf president of Vermont-based NRG Systems, a 25-year old company that manufactures goods for the industry. “This is really serious. This is the first time in 30 years we’ve had to do layoffs and once you start to dismantle this system it’s hard to put it back together.”
Tom Carnahan of Wind Rose Partners said the industry has experienced fluctuations before, but this is different. “There is more at stake this time; every month is critical,” Carnahan said. “Developers have already started layoffs and every quarter of this year we are going to lose jobs. It will be a tragedy not to find a way to get this tax extended.”