Nov 06, 2009 - 6:48 AM EST
Kelvin Schulle submits:Thursday, a report said Democrat Senator Schumer called to restrict the stimulus funds to be used in the 600MW wind farm joint venture in Texas, which is made up of A-Power Energy Generation (APWR), U.S. Renewable Energy Group and Cielo. A-Power owns 49% of the JV. The project is expected to get funding from the Commercial Bank of China (around $1.05B) and $450M from the US stimulus package. So Sen Schumer is supporting President Obama's policy to develop renewable energy, but assails the $450M being taken from stimulus. His reason is simple: the $450M will be used to create jobs in China, not in the US. Well, it looks that way, however, he ignores that $1.05B will be from China. China is financing the major part of the project! Let me list a few facts that prove Sen Schumer is not seeing the full picture here.
1. A-Power formed a joint venture with General Electric (GE) to develop wind turbines earlier this year. According to the announcement, GE owns a majority stake in the business that will serve as GE Drivetrain Technologies' Southeast Asia manufacturing center starting in mid-2010. Now it is clear that turbine shipped from A-Power is at least 50% owned by GE. In other words, China's $1.05B investment in the 600MW project is going to create jobs associated with GE.
Source: Seeking Alpha (Nov 06, 2009 - 6:48 AM EST)