Michigan worker's plea: Extend PTC, help wind power create U.S. jobs

Wind power has created new manufacturing jobs and can help create more if the federal Production Tax Credit incentive is extended, according to an opinion article in Friday's edition of the Daily Caller by power technician Scott Wood of Danotek Motion Technologies, located in Canton, Mich.

Wood, formerly a construction worker for 18 years, decided the time had come to make a change when he found himself out of work for a year.  Having seen a wind farm in northern Michigan while on a hunting trip, he enrolled in a training course at the Michigan Institute for Aviation and Technology (MIAT), also in Canton. After graduating, he landed a job with Danotek, which makes generators and converters for wind turbines.

"From where I stand," Wood writes in part, "it’s pretty simple. There are many workers like me in Michigan who have had a hard time finding a steady and rewarding job, and we need a lot more companies like Danotek with factories building major components for wind turbines that can generate an endless supply of clean, renewable energy for this country. And for that to happen, both large and small wind companies need business certainty to be able to make investments in America and hire new American workers … "  He adds that an extension of the PTC, currently scheduled to expire at the end of this year, is needed to provide that certainty because "We need all the clean energy and new manufacturing jobs we can get."

Related articles:

Bipartisan letter from entire Iowa Congressional delegation urges: Extend the PTC, February 10, 2012

Senate Energy Chairman Bingaman: Act now to save clean-energy jobs, February 9, 2012

Bipartisan letter from Colorado Congressional delegation urges: Extend the PTC, February 8, 2012

Republican governors push for PTC extension; Senators express support, February 2, 2012

U.S. Chamber of Commerce joins broad range of groups endorsing PTC extension, February 1, 2012

WindTV: Wind power drives commerce in small-town America, January 24, 2012

Denver Post endorses PTC extension 'sooner rather than later', January 18, 2012

WSJ op-ed: 'Want Growth? Try Stable Tax Policy', January 5, 2012

Red State Energy, Red State Jobs, November 29, 2011

Governors' letter urges prompt extension of wind tax incentive, November 16, 2011