US President Barack Obama defends his energy subsidy package to invest billions into alternative energy generation by citing examples from Spain, Germany, and Japan. He has pointed to the renewables industry as a way to create new and sustainable jobs during a period of economic downturn. But this recent report prepared by Dr. Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at Juan Carlos University in Madrid, shows that for Spain the “green employment opportunity” has proven elusive and unsustainable. The executive summary of Dr. Calzada’s report is posted below. The full report can be accessed by selecting one of the links at the bottom of this page.

In this Article, the authors survey the green jobs literature, analyze its assumptions, and show how the special interest groups promoting the idea of green jobs have embedded dubious assumptions and techniques within their analyses. Before undertaking efforts to restructure and possibly impoverish our society, careful analysis and informed public debate about these assumptions and prescriptions are necessary.

This report was prepared for a presentation given at the South Plains Agriculture Wind & Wildlife Conference in Lubbock, Texas on February 13, 2009. The findings and conclusions contained herein are the exclusive property of Gardner Appraisal Group, Inc., and cannot be re-produced without the express written permission of Gardner Appraisal Group, Inc. Windaction.org wishes to thank Mr. Derry T. Gardner for kindly granting us permission to post his presentation to the www.windaction.org website. To access the document, click on the link at the bottom of this page.

Chris Luxemburger is a real estate broker, director of the Brampton Real Estate Board and the Chairperson of the Real Estate By-Laws Committee in Ontario, Canada. In his survey of the three-year sales records for the Melancthon Wind Plant and surrounding area, Luxemburger found significant differences among 600 properties within and beyond three nautical miles of the plant. Those in proximity to wind turbines had either a higher rate of non-sale (11% vs. 3%) or took twice as long to sell. He summarizes his findings in this presentation.

This paper documents the results of an in-field test at the Maple Ridge wind energy facility in New York to determine the effectiveness of using an experimental acoustic bat deterrent to reduce bat mortality. The executive summary excerpted below suggests the results were inconclusive. Most bat experts remain unconvinced that acoustic deterrence will be a suitable mitigation approach to reduce bat fatalities at existing turbines.

Executive Summary of a document prepared by the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) which discusses the cost/benefit of deploying wind turbines to meet the Kansas Governor's challenge “to have 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity installed in Kansas by 2015.” Included below are sections 0.80 and 0.90 of the executive summary. The full document can be accessed by clicking on one of the below links.

Mr. Robert L. Cook, a wildlife biologist and former Executive Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) provided this testimony before the Brown County Commissioners Court. Mr. Cook supports his recommendation that a wind farm tax abatement not be granted on wind projects in the county.

Mr. Sean Cox presented evidence at the Resource Management Act hearing for the Te Uku wind farm which directly countered the economic case for the wind farm, its carbon emissions justification, the available wind resource at Te Uku, adverse noise and health effects, and challenged the expertise of some of wind developer Wel's consultants. When completed, Wel counsel Simon Berry asked that the hearing be adjourned to permit the developer time to respond to Mr. Cox's submission. An excerpt of Mr. Cox's testimony is included below. The full transcript can be accessed by clicking on one of the two links provided.

Pace Global Energy Services, LLC (“Pace”) was commissioned by Delmarva Power and Light (“Delmarva”) to independently assess the economic impacts of the proposed Bluewater Wind off-shore wind farm (the “BWW Project”) on Delmarva’s Standard Offer Service (“SOS”) customers. The review undertaken by Pace was based solely on publicly-available information and data sources. The report can be downloaded by clicking on the below link.