• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Stimulus Aid for Wind Power equals US Jobs and Capital Investment
Statement by Walt Hornaday, President of Cielo Wind Power, LPNovember 5, 2009 Cielo Wind Power, LP, the largest independently owned wind power developerin the US, recently announced a $1.5 billion/ 600MW project planned for Texas. This project is a key project of Cielo Wind Power, its employees in Texas, New Mexico and New York, and will greatly benefit the ruralcommunities in Texas where the wind farm will be located. Consequently,Cielo will be able to ramp up hiring in an industry that has been hit hard bythe financial crisis. In addition, this is an important project to the engineers,contractors and suppliers who will see millions of dollars of work at a timewhen energy based jobs are difficult to find.International partnerships are essential to the development of low costrenewable energy in America. Cielo has a great track record of maximizingthe amount of local spending on projects in the rural areas where they arelocated. These rural areas are extremely appreciative of the benefits of thehigh tech job base, capital investment and land royalties that these projectsbring. Further, having built over 1,100MW of wind power in the past, Cielohas used engineers, contractors and suppliers from coast to coast to build Texas and New Mexico wind projects. Any characterization of this plannedproject as anything other than an economic development lifeline to the windindustry during tough economic times is just inaccurate.This project will nottake place without the planned benefits of the American Recovery andReinvestment Act. Without this incentive, wind projects will wait on thesidelines for energy prices to come back to the levels we saw a few yearsago. This could be next year or this could be next decade. Without theleadership of the stimulus act, the wind industry in the entire US would facelosing billions of dollars of work and tens of thousands of jobs. The wind power industry has shown its ability to control escalating energyprices when conventional power supplies increase. Most of these project hada mix of US and overseas suppliers that provided the know how to providethe most cost competitive projects in very competitive electricity markets. This project will add enough energy to meet the full energy needs of anestimated 180,000 homes. This speaks nothing of the huge environmentalbenefit of wind power of this project through eliminating CO2 emissions andother dangerous pollutants from our conventional energy supply.I have invested my entire career in growing a company that is focused solelyon the US wind power industry. I invite the Honorable U.S. Senator Schumerto come visit Cielo at either its Austin or New York offices or visit one of theprojects we have developed in the past as well. You will see industrious,highly skilled and appreciative US workers that owe their jobs to theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act that makes these near termprojects possible.
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...