Wind Industry Dead In The Water-10K Jobs Lost Since ’09

We see them everywhere--wind farms.  South of Tri Cities, the hills are dotted with wind turbines.  But across the US, the industry is shedding jobs quickly.

Despite the nearly doubling of wind farm capacity (the number of turbines) since 2009,  the job market in the industry has dropped by 10,000.  Fox Nation reports, by way of Reuters, the oil and gas industry have created over 75,000 new jobs.    The report goes on to say the Obama Administration's ambitious plan to create new green jobs has failed to the point where the Labor Department's own Inspector General says they should return the 327 million remaining in the program..of course, the didn't.

  By the end of 2011,  just over 16,000 new 'green' jobs had been created; a number less than 20% of the original goal announced by The White House as attainable by next year.   In December 2009, VP Joe Biden say they (the Feds) would put over 722,000 people to work with their new programs.  Those numbers are far below what they promsed.  More of the report can be found at Breitbart.

 While wind power has exploded in Eastern Washington and throughout areas of the state, the unpredictability of weather often leaves the turbines hanging motionless.  Most of our climate is windiest in the spring, when power demands are lower.  Winter months, most of the turbines don't generate much.   There is also the issue of the turbines not being able to store the electricity they generate.  Regionally, we are seeing some economic benefit from wind technology; nationally, the industry has not lived up to it's hype promised by The White House.