AWEA Reaches Out to Public Urging Extension of Key Wind Power Incentive
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has launched a new website that aims to reach out and better inform Americans about how the lack of consistent clean energy policy at the federal level is holding back economic growth and job creation. More specifically, SaveUSAWindJobs.com provides facts, figures and tools to urge Congress to pass a four-year extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) before it expires year-end 2012.
The wind power industry is one of the fastest growing manufacturing sectors of the US economy. Some 75,000 are employed in the industry and analysts foresee that growing to as many as 500,000 in less than 20 years, according to the AWEA. This economic and job growth is consistently put in jeopardy, however, by Congress, which continues to be unable to enact a clear, consistent, proactive clean energy policy.
Congress has allowed the PTC to expire in the recent past. Wind installations dropped between 73% and 93% when it did, the AWEA notes in a news release.
The AWEA’s new website depicts this boom-and-bust cycle graphically. The site also features a minute-and-a-half video that explains how government support of wind power boosts job creation, and how the PTC has been integral to it, creating wind power jobs in all 50 states.
Also on the SaveUSAWindJobs website is a PTC fact sheet and primer that shows how, with sound policies like the PTC, the US can meet 20% of its electricity needs with wind power.
The site also provides the means by which supporters can take action. It provides those interested in supporting extension of the PTC and stronger US clean energy policy the ability to identify and contact their Congressional members and urge them to do so.
“The SaveUSAWindJobs website is a powerful tool for the overwhelming majority of Americans who say they want more wind power,” said Denise Bode, AWEA CEO. “The need for a PTC extension is urgent. I ask everyone who supports more clean, homegrown wind power and more American manufacturing jobs to engage their Members of Congress by tapping into this valuable resource.”
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