A week ago I was on the warpath about a locally incubated company that used State and Federal research grants and used Muskegon's multi-million dollar state of the art research and tech incubator facilities to develop their wind generator. Then they turned around and took 2.7 million dollars from Canada as a "grant" to move their factory, and 200 jobs, and their research and development arm, to Windsor, Canada.

Then RLMillersent me an article from the New York Times that made my eyeballs explode...

A massive, 600 megawatt wind farm is being built in Texas.

So far, so good.

And it's being built, in part, with Federal Stimulus funds.

Also nice.

And the wind mills and the 2000 manufacturing jobs have been contracted out to...........China.

The number of permanent American jobs created by the 1.5 billion dollar project?

30.

That's thirty. THIRTY. 30 permanent positions. And only 300 local construction jobs. All while creating 2000 jobs overseas. (oh, and we'll still be collecting that power bill)

The group’s calculations last week put the number of American jobs at a little more than 300 — most of them temporary construction jobs, along with about 30 permanent positions once the wind farm is operating. Mr. McGarr told The Wall Street Journal that more than 2,000 Chinese jobs would be created by the deal. -- Article

If the folks near the windfarm in Texas are anything like the folks in Muskegon, MI...I can tell you that there was a lot of emotional and financial investment in this project.

Do you hear that, Obama? Congress? Senate?

We had hope.

We invested actual money into these projects. We felt pride that the future was coming to our towns. We felt that finally, FINALLY, we did it the right way, our communities reinvented themselves and we're embracing the future and things are going to get better. Our massive, long term unemployment, growing homelessness, and expanding poverty rates were going to finally see some relief.

And then we're kicked in the teeth again. Our financial investment and risk is somebody else's private gain. And the jobs? They're vented out of the country as soon as humanly possible.

This is a problem.

This is a problem not just from the perspective of jobs in America.

This is a problem for environmentalists and goals to cut carbon emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels.

The green energy initiative continues to be sold to Americans as a jobs creation tool. The theory goes that somehow if we engage green power production here and if we develop the technologies here, we will create new jobs! A new generation of technology and manufacturing jobs.

If those jobs don't pan out, if they seem to be flying out the door as fast as they're started,if we're watching our tax dollars go to finance companies that set up jobs for people overseas I guarantee, GUARANTEE, we're going to see any current support for alternative energy dry up fast.

Do we want people to passionately support the green revolution? Do we want people to take pride in it? Feel it's an important part of their lives?

It needs to create jobs.

It NEEDS to create jobs.

Every time a new story pops up about some company taking our money to start a green energy business, and then sending hundreds or thousands of jobs overseas, it erodes another regions confidence in this initiative.

Don't give me that crap about protectionism.

Part of the agitation [over the Texas wind energy project] almost certainly arises from China’s own reputation for green protectionism. As Keith Bradsher wrote earlier this year in The New York Times, by establishing prohibitive quotas for homegrown solar and wind turbine equipment, and disqualifying bids from foreign companies on dubious grounds, the Chinese leadership has muscled out American and European manufacturers of clean energy seeking to gain a foothold in China’s burgeoning market for renewables. -- Article

[Obama] alluded to the example set by Germany - a wealthy, highly-unionized country with an economy that is 40 percent export-based. "It seems to me that there is something we are missing that they are doing right," he said. "And we have got to figure that out." -- Article

We are, at the national level, HYPER concerned about putting conditions on businesses that use our money.

I spoke with a retired city manager over the weekend. One of his jobs was to lure businesses to the cities he worked for over his 30+ year career. When a city gives money or tax abatements to a business in exchange for locating within its borders, that city does so with heavy conditions..."you create 10 jobs, we give you X in tax abatements or grants." Even the Canadian government, when giving a grant to WindTronics very sensibly said "We give you this money, and you agree to create 200 jobs in 5 years, or you pay it back."

Ontario’s $2.7 million grant is contingent on generating 200 jobs in the next five years. Without the jobs, the company will have to pay back the grant -- Article

Putting requirements on the money we grant to businesses is not protectionism.

If Obama and congress is serious about creating jobs, it's not rocket science. But they have to start getting serious about it. What we have now is a system of Socialized risk, and Privatized gain. And we're going to continue paying for it in lost jobs, higher unemployment, higher poverty, and a lost opportunity to get America excited about green technology.

Get on the horn and make some noise



Call your congress person (202) 224-3121 and give you congress person and earful.

Call the Senate Switchboard(202) 224-3121 and give your senator an earful KEEP THESE JOBS HERE

Update [2009-11-5 10:14:43 by Muskegon Critic]:

Turns out Chuck Schumer is fighting this thing this morning with a letter to the Prez.

http://www.google.com/...