WASHINGTON, DC (July 6, 2012) Recently, Gamesa — a worldwide leader in wind turbine production based in Spain — announced that it will furlough 165 workers at two wind turbine manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania. A spokesman for the company said the decision was due to adverse market conditions caused by Congress failing to act on renewing the Production Tax Credit (PTC).  The PTC is a 2.2-cent per kilowatt tax credit for the production of electricity from utility scale wind turbines for the first ten years of production and it is set to expire in December 2012.

The BlueGreen Alliance’s Executive Director David Foster issued the following statement about the furloughs.

“Our thoughts are with the workers who will be furloughed in the next 60 days. We hope that this situation is temporary and that the company will bring them back as quickly as possible.

“To anyone outside the Beltway, the answer to this problem is simple. We should extend the Production Tax Credit. It will create and save American jobs and ensure we can compete and win against China, Europe and the rest of the world in renewable energy technologies. The lack of action in Congress to extend the Production Tax Credit is mindboggling. This should not get caught up in the politics of the day, as there is bipartisan support for renewing this proven job-creating credit.

“Nearly half the jobs in America’s wind industry will be lost and we’ll be missing out on creating thousands more jobs if we do not renew it. Congress must act now to avert job losses and capitalize on this job creation opportunity.”