Wind subsidy could preserve Grand Forks jobs
January 4, 2013 at 1:00 am in Grand Forks Herald
A last-minute, one-year extension of a wind energy subsidy could save thousands of jobs nationwide, according to an industry group, but officials in North Dakota are waiting to see what its effect will be on jobs here. Continue Reading
If the Wind industry after 20+ years of providing power cant survive on its own its time to move on.
Sorry if this affects local workers but its a simple fact that we can no longer keep floating cash to companies to keep them in business.
You have two options as i see it, you either make your industry viable on its own by cutting salaries etc, or you go out of business.
After 25 years of subsidies the Wind Industry has managed to account for a whopping 2.92% of our power used in this nation. They project that by 2030 they will account for 20%.
My guess is that the 20% figure only holds up as long as we keep the cash flowing to the industry and keep villifying coal and oil.
I have nothing against Wind or Solar energy, i just ask that they stand on their own two feet and provide the power they can without kickbacks from the government.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I can hear the libs cheering about this one…here’s a thought. In a nation where pretty much everything is subsidized by the federal government, we’ll never know if wind energy, or (pick your subsidized portion of the economy) could have stood on its own. How about hybrid vehicles? Fact is, this is how the nanny state wants it. They don’t want us to ever know if we could have made a “go of it” on our own..because if it were possible, government loses power and is pretty much kept at the back of the room. PS…this includes farm subsidies. Cost increases that are threatened every time there’s talk of cutting farm subsidies don’t take into account the fact that we can’t remember what the prices were when the industry wasn’t subsidized. Not to mention how much tax dollars are put into the system for a dime difference in a gallon of milk. I have a feeling, (back to LM windpower) that if they went out of business because their money dried up, the local economy would figure it out. AFter all, look how they talked about the ACS lock out! Folks are making it after that fiasco…
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I wouldn’t want to work for a wind power company. The jobs aren’t steady. Move on people. Find something you can rely on.
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I’m surprised there isn’t a tax credit for buggy whips and ice boxes.
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Exactly how does a tax credit “cost” us? Without the credit, none of the jobs would have been created, the towers (which have not been in North Dakota on any large scale for 20+ years) wouldn’t be cranking out Kw. (I just got notification from Nodak REC that the Coyote Plant at Beulah is down due to failure of a large generator. It’s nice to have a backup.) If those jobs had not been created, those who work there would not be paying as much income tax. They wouldn’t be renting apartments or buying houses. They wouldn’t be buying groceries, clothing, or cars. The property taxes paid in the areas where the towers are would not be helping schools, towns, townships, and counties. And, of course, the tax exemptions the wind companies are granted wouldn’t be needed since no tax money would exist because the industry wouldn’t exist.
You guys would have criticized the government for its encouragement of the transcontinental railroad. (Let the free market make it viable.) http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406400787.html
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The earlier policies set in this country got us to where we are now … a country of citizens who rely on government to fund research for nearly anything innovative.
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devilschild, do you think we’d have ever had a space program if we had not done it as a government? I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember as vividly as I the shock in the U.S. when the USSR beat us into space. A communist country shamed the king of capitalism! A country that had been devastated by WW II surpassed the leader of the Allies within 12 years of the war’s end. (Please don’t misinterpret my statement. I believe in capitalism as well as in government intervention at appropriate times.)
I remember the wailing and weeping about how the Soviet Union’s school system must be better than ours. (No mention was made of the fact that both their space program and ours relied upon German scientists, not home-grown scientists.) The reason the Soviets had the lead was because of a government commitment to their space program. Once the U.S. made its commitment, we surpassed them. This would never have happened had we depended upon the free market.
The transcontinental railroad, the Interstate, the space program,…and…I believe, wind power, are essential components of an infrastructure that could not have been developed without government incentives or direct involvement, The spin-offs of these government investements didn’t made us all much richer than we would have otherwise been.
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I am really disappointed in the space program Glenn. I had expected moon colonies by now. But NO! What did I get from NASA? A damn space pen that writes under water or upside down.
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Ya….Where’s our damn jet packs too?
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We now have three people on this planet that support moon colonies..Tundra, Newt Gingrich and myself
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“You guys would have criticized the government for its encouragement of the transcontinental railroad.”
Which made a few people like James J. Hill enormously wealthy.
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Yes, it made him enormously wealthy. Isn’t that a small price to pay for the result? Should the government instead really gone socialist and built, owned, and operated the railroad themselves? Or should it have left everything to the free market and we might not have survived long enough as a country to actually have a transcontinental railroad?
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Actually James J Hill did not take subsidies for his railroad, one of the few who didn’t. But yes, I would have attacked the rail subsidies at the time Glenn, because they were wrong then and they’re wrong now.
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Rhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/william-lazonick/nine-government-investmen_b_954185.html
9 successful government funded program
1.railroads
2.universities
3.agriculture- federal funded ag expierment stations
4. Aircraft
5. Jet engines
6. College educated workforce-gi bill
7. Interstate highway system
8. Computers/internet
9. Life sciences
What did dc say? “The earlier policies set in this country got us to where we are now … a country of citizens who rely on government to fund research for nearly anything innovative.”
I believe we sitll federally fund our university system, ag research, college educated workforce, interstate highway system, and medical research.
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Why does dupont, pioneer, cargill, monsanto, ect… send theyre products to our university profs to research and use in they’re research plots. But again anything federally funded will never produce anything innovative.
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A one year extension, are these now gay blades?
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