Jobs loss and a dead calm over the wind energy business really should not be a casualty of politics. But that's what is happening with the Romney campaign and several anti-everything-government noisemakers in the House.
Experts say government stimulus is still necessary (and commonplace in China and other countries enjoying a clean energy boom). Even conservative politicians are saying that wind power is a viable boost to a tired economy.
"Things could get even worse: if the production tax credit that has powered the wind industry to record levels of installed megawatts over the last few years is killed, the American Wind Energy Association estimates that 37,000 jobs could be lost overall.
In places like Iowa where wind energy has blossomed, even conservative politicians like Republicans Gov. Terry Branstad and Sen. Chuck Grassley have called on Mitt Romney to back off his anti-wind rhetoric," according to Matt Sledge in the Huffington Post.
"Our point in pulling this together was to underscore that there is reality outside the beltway," said Judy Albert, whose group Environmental Entrepreneurs released a report that said job creation in wind energy is down over industry uncertainty about the fate of the crucial production tax credit.
image: midwesternenergynews.com
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