Killing AB 32 Will Threaten California’s Leadership in Wind Energy
Just when California is about to start closing the gap with Texas and
Iowa in the amount of wind energy it produces, there’s a move afoot by
out-of-state oil companies to pull the rug out from under us and thwart
the development of these projects.
Located in more than 10 California counties and totaling 3,000 MW in
capacity (enough to power about a million homes, and much more in the
pipeline), these projects will more than double the current amount of wind energy in our state.
In addition, they will create more than 3,000 construction jobs and
hundreds of permanent operations jobs, in addition to indirect jobs.
For example, some of the turbine towers will be built at a
manufacturing plant in Fontana in San Bernardino County. Hundreds of
other jobs will also go into the development of needed transmission
infrastructure. These are quality, high-wage jobs, employing
Californians of all skill levels — from engineers to manufacturers,
laborers to biologists, real estate professionals to crane operators.