Our county executive, Kathy Dahlkemper, often touts the benefits of wind energy to Erie County citing the many green jobs it will create, but Ontario is a great example of what really happens. It’s a learning experience for those willing to learn.
Short term jobs
An Ontario factory producing wind turbine blades is closing, ending 340 jobs. The factory was set up when the Canadian province, in their push for green energy, awarded contracts to wind developers, but now that the tax money is running out and the province is saturated with turbines, the wind business no longer make sense. The simple fact about wind energy is that without government subsidies to the wind industry, there is no wind industry. It creates fake jobs, fueled only by your tax dollars. Without a constant flow of those dollars, the jobs disappear. Listen to what they’re saying in Ontario:
“I think it was always pretty obvious that whatever jobs were going to arise from the Green Energy Act were all temporary or almost all temporary,” Adams said, referencing the provincial law that paved the way for big wind farms in Ontario
Can Erie County officials learn from Ontario’s mistakes? Will they?
Maybe Kathy Dahlkemper could explain why she thinks green energy jobs would help Erie County if, as Ontario once again shows, those jobs exist only as long as we’re propping them up with our tax dollars. Perhaps she doesn’t realize Erie County taxpayers don’t need jobs like that. Erie County needs real jobs, not fake jobs.
Matt Putman says
July 20, 2017 at 1:36 pmPaul, Thanks for keeping us abreast of issues of our neighbor’s in Ontario and the reality of how wind energy only survives when government subsidized. Wind Energy has been a scam from the beginning with investors only concerned about lining their pockets with government subsidizes and truly not concerned with producing cost effective energy.
Keep up the good work !