Looks like the Santa Ana winds followed Barbara Boxer all the way back to Washington and made their way over to the White House yesterday.
During an afternoon briefing Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked to respond to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s remark that the economic stimulus plan was “disproportionately saving jobs in the public sector and not stimulating private-sector economic growth.” Unsurprisingly, Gibbs was quick to defend the stimulus plan President Obama and Senator Boxer championed and argued that the wind credits in the package had saved California’s wind energy business.
Roll tape on the hot air coming from the east:
While we continue to wait on Barbara Boxer to comment both on Newsom’s comments and the White House’s defense of the stimulus, we took the liberty of doing a little checking on this wind credit program the White House touts and Barbara Boxer strongly supports and wants to see expanded, and it turns out it is in fact creating jobs…overseas.
Here are the facts:
“Through One Stimulus Measure — The Section 1603 Grant Program — Developers Of Renewable Energy Are Entitled To A Reimbursement Of 30 Percent Of The Cost Of Building A Facility.” (“Foreign Firms Dominate Wind Energy In U.S., Land Stimulus Dollars,” Politics Daily, www.politicsdaily.com, 5/25/10)
Of The $2.3 Billion In Tax Credits Issued For The Production Of U.S. Wind Farms, The Program Granted $1.6 Billion, Or 70 Percent, To Foreign Firms. “Since last September, that government program has given out $2.3 billion to developers of U.S. wind farms. About 70 percent of the rebates — more than $1.6 billion in U.S. tax dollars — has gone to foreign developers, according to an analysis in February by the Washington-based Investigative Reporting Workshop of grant information released by the Department of Energy.” (“Foreign Firms Dominate Wind Energy In U.S., Land Stimulus Dollars,” Politics Daily, www.politicsdaily.com, 5/25/10)
“The Report Concluded That A Majority Of Those Taxpayer Funds Financed The Purchase Of Wind Turbines And Other Parts Manufactured Overseas, Thus Using Stimulus Dollars To Create Jobs In Foreign Countries.” (Mike Dennison, “Wind Lobby: Restricting Federal Grant Money Will Hurt Power Projects,” The Missoulian, 3/9/09)
Still, Sen. Boxer Has Called For The “Extension And Expansion” Of The Section 1603 Tax Credit. “We are writing to request that you include in any job creation package or other suitable legislative vehicle the Renewable Energy Incentive Act (S. 2899) or a similarly fiscally responsible extension and expansion of the Renewable Energy Treasury Grant Program, originally created in section 1603 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).” (Sen. Barbara Boxer, et. al., Letter to Senate Leadership, 4/19/10)
So in addition to explaining to voters how she defends the stimulus even when members of her own ticket are criticizing it, Barbara Boxer should explain to Californians why she wants to expand the wind credit program that has not only failed to deliver Californians the “help and hope” and the 400,000 jobs she promised, but is actually creating jobs overseas. Until we hear from Boxer herself on this, guess we’ll just have to assume based on her record that the “Made in America” bit she has been parroting is nothing more than a whole lot more hot air out of a career politician.