Obama's Wind Job Creation Package

Last week Gov. Culver unveiled Barack Obama's plan to invest in renewable and create thousands of green collar jobs in wind energy industries.

“The outcome of this election is very important to the future of Iowa’s wind industry,” said Governor Culver. “The wind industry has created more than 2,000 green-collar jobs in Iowa over the last two years, and Barack Obama has a detailed plan to further invest in wind energy and make wind energy a federal priority.”

Gov. Culver spoke at Clipper Windpower in Cedar Rapids and TPI Composites in Newton, which announced over the weekend they would be adding hundreds of jobs in Newton.

Here are the details of Obama's plan...

• Requiring 10 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will establish a 10 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 10 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2012.

• Extend the federal Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) for 5 years. Extending the federal Wind Production Tax Credit for five years will encourage the industry to grow and increase production of renewable energy.

• Invest in a Smart Grid. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will pursue a major investment in our national utility grid using smart metering, distributed storage and other advanced technologies to accommodate 21st century energy requirements: greatly improved electric grid reliability and security, a tremendous increase in renewable generation and greater customer choice and energy affordability.

• Double Farm Bill funding for wind programs. The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) – expanded in the 2008 Farm Bill – built on the successful Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency incentives for locally-owned wind power, biofuels, energy efficiency, solar energy and other clean energy projects like methane digesters. Demand for this program far exceeds available funding by about a three to one margin. To close that gap, Barack Obama and Joe Biden propose doubling this program to increase incentives for locally-owned wind power.