No Thanks To Congress, America Has Added 5,600 New Clean Energy Jobs in 2014

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No Thanks To Congress, America Has Added 5,600 New Clean Energy Jobs in 2014

by Emily Atkin at Think Progress

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/23/3441143/clean-energy-jobs-q1/

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Despite Congressional refusal to extend tax benefits for clean energy producers, the American economy is still adding thousands of clean energy jobs — just way less than it did when those benefits were intact.

According to a report released Thursday by nonpartisan business group Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), about 5,600 new clean energy and clean transportation jobs were announced throughout the country in the first three months of 2014, a huge decline from the 12,000 such jobs reported in the first quarter of 2013. Part of this decline is due to Congress’ failure to renew the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy, a $13 billion tax break to the wind industry to help them compete with fossil fuels.

“At the end of 2013, Congress let the PTC expire, halting the momentum of a rapidly growing industry,” the report, which tallies the amount of publicly available job announcements across the country, said. “As long as federal tax extenders remain in limbo, renewable technologies will remain stuck in a boom-bust cycle dictated by the whims of Washington.”

The PTC officially expired on January 1 of this year due to Congressional gridlock over the issue, driven by Republicans who oppose giving tax breaks to the wind industry on the grounds that it amounts to a form of “welfare” that unfairly props up an industry present in some states but not others. At the moment, it’s particularly hard for wind to compete with the oil and gas industries, which benefit from a wealth of federal tax carve-outs and a century of economic infrastructure, even though the economic activity they generate is concentrated in just a few key states.



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