April 05, 2010 10:39 PM UTC

Jobs, common energy sense, and sending the right message

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• by: Bowman for Senate

Talk about a win-win situation. The recent announcement of a deal to purchase electricity for use by Colorado consumers, generated with Colorado’s renewable resources, using equipment built in Colorado, is the whole package.

Administrators at Xcel Energy and Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. have inked a 20-year agreement with Public Service Company of Colorado. The deal is for purchase and distribution of 252 megawatts of power to be generated by wind turbines at the soon-to-be constructed Cedar Point wind farm in Lincoln and Elbert Counties. And the cherry on this home-grown energy sundae is that the turbines will be manufactured by Vestas plants in Colorado.

This is good news on so many levels. There is, of course, the environmental benefit of an eminently clean wind-generated power source.  And along with that come all the other positives which were intended last month when legislators passed HB1001, setting an increased renewable energy standard.

Heading the top of the list are the jobs which will directly result from this new deal:  

The Denver Business Journal cites an estimate of 100-200 construction jobs during the building of the Cedar Point wind farm. Then there will be the manufacturing jobs for Vestas employees – especially good news following the temporary furlough the company implemented following the impact of last year’s credit crunch on potential customers.

Add to that the indirectly related jobs – the waitresses, the sales clerks, the day care providers, and all the other people who will be paid by the first wave of workers.  In addition will be the increased economic development benefits facilitated by 21st century energy development.

Because that’s how it works.  Potential investors, developers, and innovators look to groundwork already laid by forward-thinking administrators who are willing to be proactive.  HB1001 sponsors Max Tyler, Gail Schwartz, and others can feel proud, as well as vindicated.

Schwartz in particular debated with a battery of nay-sayers who scoffed on the Senate floor at her projections of job development.  Republicans argued long and loud against provisions in the bill requiring workers on energy development and installation projects have specific professional skills and training. Bill opponents referred to “sweetheart deals” and used the words “labor union” as an epithet. But Schwartz stood her ground, saying that the utility worker requirements were the heart of job creation which had been included in the bill, expressly for that reason.

Then there was Sen. Greg Brophy, who currently represents Lincoln and Elbert Counties in Senate District 1. Brophy took the podium during the legislative debate to oppose HB1001 more than once.

He argued the bill gave an unfair advantage to certain resources at the expense of hydroelectric and natural gas, and offered two amendments intended to dilute the legislation. He disputed projections of potential jobs, holding papers which reportedly contained statistics from a Spanish university study that claimed two-to-one job losses as a result of wind energy development. His argument might have been persuasive had Schwartz not pointed out the Spanish study had been commissioned by the natural gas industry, and refuted by the Wall Street Journal.

So proponents of a progressive energy policy in Colorado prevailed, and the message they sent to tomorrow’s energy industry was clear: You are welcome here, and we are ready for you.

Clearly, the industry is getting the message, which means we all win.