New Plant to Make 100% American Made Wind Turbines

by Muskegon Critic

Wanna see some American jobs? A wind turbine assembly plant is opening in Saginaw, Michigan. That's right where the Thumb of the Mitten meets the Hand. Saginaw. And it'll be the first plant the US to make 100% American Made wind turbines. That's wind turbines spelled: j-o-b-s.

Score one more for Governor Granholm's long time push to diversify Michigan's economy...not just into anything, but into green manufacturing. Screw this being tied to one industry crap: the auto industry. She's doing what should have been done 50 years ago.

Northern Power Systems of Barre, Vt., intends to use a facility in Saginaw to manufacture its next-generation large wind turbines, expected to be the first ones built in the U.S. using 100% American-made parts. Plans call for sourcing as many parts as possible from Michigan companies.

[snip]

Northern Power already has a deal to supply 13 of the turbines for a Heritage Sustainable Energy wind farm near Escanaba that will supply power to Consumers Energy, state officials said.

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Jobs should be blowing in the wind (and frying in the sun ...)

by A Siegel

Trends that go against 'common wisdom' are often hard for people to absorb and realize.  A journalist's job, however, should be to question (even challenge) common wisdom rather than simply parroting talking points that are, in fact, misleading if not outright false.  When it comes to energy and environmental reporting, sadly, such questioning often seems to fall by the wayside.

Part of the journalistic myth: fossil fuel (fossil foolish) policies are good on the jobs front.  Too many journalists seem to watch petroleum industry advertising rather than read serious reports that highlight how clean-energy investments outperform dirty energy in job creation per dollar of investment and per megawatt hour of electricity production. And, thus, those well-funded talking points get slipped into the mainstream consciousness and accepted as fact -- rather than assertions that might not stand up to scrutiny.

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Conflicted

by Muskegon Critic

Sometimes I wish I were a conservative, simply for what I perceive to be their clean, clear path. Cut taxes, shrink Government. So simple. So easy to articulate.

But as a progressive I find myself often internally conflicted over jobs, sustainability, improving the middle class, environmental concerns. For example I love the notion that the St. Lawrence Seaway allows International shipping access to the Great Lakes region, making cities like Duluth, Minnesota one of the busiest harbors in America...but I hate, hate, hate, hate that the St. Lawrence Seaway has opened the door to hundreds of invasive species in the Great Lakes.

I want Michigan to manufacture again, and make STUFF and sell STUFF and get families back to work! But I want to reduce consumerism overall, and see people re-using STUFF and being less wasteful and being less dependent on buying STUFF.

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Energize US: In Billy Kennedy's Own Words (NC-05)

by Energize US

The choices facing us are stark. One option, the one I favor, is to free ourselves of both fossil fuels and the political influence bought with fossil fuel money.

We must invest in new technology and renewable energy because new American jobs depend on it. China has now jumped ahead to become the world's largest manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels - they are adding 100,000 new jobs a year in renewable energy as a result.

We could have what China has, too, but not going at things the way we have been.

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DelBene closing on Reichert. Let's pick up one blue.

by rb137

I met Suzan DelBene for the first time some months ago, when we had a converstion about why she chose to run for congress. She impressed me at the time, and I have not been disappointed since. In the past six weeks, she's closed a 14 point gap to the point where the spread is within the error bars, and she has real momentum.

Joan McCarter wrote about this race yesterday and Politico called it a "sleeper alert" this morning, citing this article in the Seattle-PI. The Republicans are freaking, though, because they expected this to be a comfortable contest for David Reichert. They are putting 11th hour resources into this district to be sure.

You might remember Wa-08 prior, when Darcy Burner ran for congress in 2006 and 2008. This is a tough district that has never seated a Democrat, but is always within striking distance of making a red to blue transition. Darcy nearly succeded. More than turning a red seat blue, though, I want to tell you why we need to send Suzan to congress.  

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EnergizeUS: Energy & Water- Introducing Rodney Glassman (AZ-Sen)

by Energize US

  EnergizeUS is all about local energy jobs and the manufacturing needed to support that. EnergizeUS coalition member and Arizona Senate candidate Rodney Glassman has a background in arid land management and he immediately keyed in on the water issues associated with energy production.

  This isn’t well known yet, but it is a very serious concern, and one we’d do well to address sooner rather than later.

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EnergizeUS: Skills Mismatch, Congressional Style

by Energize US

 Lately we’ve been hearing a lot of excuses: people are unemployed because they’re lazy. They’re unemployed because they have skills mismatch.

  The real reason people are unemployed is that the jobs they have the skills to perform have been exported at every possible opportunity for the last thirty years. We’ve retrained and retrained and retrained while this has gone on, until now they only industries left are training ... or going further into debt funding education in the next career that will be offshored as soon as someone figures out how.

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Introducing our Candidates: Meet David Cozad (TX-06)

by Energize US

Energize US is a coalition of candidates united around one central message: we can fix our economy and put Americans back to work in good paying jobs by focusing our attention on renewable energy and conservation.  Today's diary is the first in a series that will be introducing you one by one to the members of the coalition.

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"NOAA attempts to clean up oil spill research efforts" eKos Earthship Wednesday

by eKos

Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.

Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.

Tonight's editor: ellinorianne

Please remember to rec the BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 113

And please stop by tonight's Ecoadvocates,Help Obama fight fossil fuel polluters.

All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.

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EnergizeUS: Jobs for a New Century

by Energize US

 We hear talk about local energy production jobs and the young people along with those who want to retrain into a new industry get excited, but what does it all mean? What sort of jobs are there?

  This little photo diary will give you some sense of what is possible.

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We Need Clean Energy Jobs Now

by Congressman Paul Hodes

Yesterday, we learned that another oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and no oil has leaked into the Gulf as a result of the explosion.

But this most recent explosion happened less than five months after the tragic explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 workers, dumped 4.9 billion barrels of oil into our waters and wreaked havoc on the local economies of Gulf communities.

The most dangerous thing these spills have in common is this: there were warnings that disaster might occur. Just like BP, Mariner Energy, who owns the oil rig that exploded yesterday, was cited for two safety violations in the past six months alone.

It’s clear now, more than ever, that we need to rethink America’s energy strategy.  We need to rethink the way we power our economy.

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EnergizeUS: Restoring American Manufacturing

by Energize US

 There will be no recovery without jobs. It's just that simple. We've watched for thirty long years as the manufacturing jobs that made America strong were spirited away to countries with lax environmental regulations and little or no protection for their citizens. American workers were forced to compete with three hundred million underemployed Chinese who were willing to work for $132 a month.

 
 We have to buy it here. We have to make it here. And unless those doing the making are themselves making it our downward spiral will continue.

  We can make this change and local energy production is the first step we should take.

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A Bill That Reduces the Deficit & Creates Jobs

by mark louis

Too good to be true right?  Well, that bill does exist.  And not only does the bill create 200 thousand jobs per year for the next decade & cut the deficit by $19 billion over the next decade, it also cuts greenhouse gas emissions.  This bill is the American Power Act, and it has no chance of passing.

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National Works Alternative Energy Program

by shpilk

In rough order of priority, here's what I'd be proposing in Congress.

Start with a national program.

Fund it by Federal surcharges on stock transactions, interest and dividend payments, profits from sales of property, taxation on Estates, and progressively apply these taxes. Here's a rough guide .. additional taxation for families making more than $100K/year add 1%, $250K/year 2%, $500K/year 3%, $1M/year 5%, $10M/year 10%, over $100M/year 25%. The rich will still be rich. They'll just be paying part of their fair share. Is that 'socialism'?

First, take these funds, and use them to hire Americans, using American made materials to upgrade, retrofit and reconfigure existing residential, government and business spaces to be more efficient. This will require labor, materials, technical management and engineering assets, it would employ unskilled as well as skilled labor. Our level of energy waste is horrendous and must be curtailed.

next ..

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Create WPA-Style Gulf Cleanup Army

by Kalkaino

It's just an idea, but it's got real possibilities. Why not create a WPA-style army to clean up the Gulf of Mexico beaches and marshlands? There are millions of able-bodied folks crying for work, and years' worth of work that will basically need to get done by hand, with shovels, bags, wheelbarrows et cetera. This is work that can't be outsourced to Inda. It'll be hot, hard, buggy, smelly work so even if we pay a real wage, (like, say $20 an hour) nobody will be said to be getting a handout. I envision a real corps, with barracks or trailer camp bases being thrown up quickly. Recruits, should be by quota drawn from all over America (with some allowance for relief of those directly affected, fishermen etc) to maximize support for the program.

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