When wind turbines go in, employment grows and incomes rise, according to a new study that looks at wind power’s local economic impact, reports Pete Danko at Earthtechling. Its analysis of the wind power production tax credit is one more argument to keep this wind subsidy alive: Wind power reaches right down to the local level as an economic engine. “Taking into account factors influencing wind turbine location, we find an aggregate increase in county-level personal income and employment of approximately $11,000 … per megawatt of wind power capacity installed over the sample period of 2000 to 2008,” write researchers from the U.S. federal scientists. The overriding argument for wind power, of course, is that it can be significant in moving the world off climate-damaging fossil fuels. But the economic piece is also important. A recent National Resources Defense Council report on the economic impact of wind power development shows that wind power can bring into counties millions in taxes and fees, annual multi-thousand wind turbine payments to landowners and hundreds to local residents, and great increases in per capita income, besides creating many new jobs.
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Source
Wind Power Spurs Jobs, Income Gains At County Level, originally posted at: http://www.earthtechling.com/2012/10/wind-power-spurs-job-income-gains-at-county-level/
Earthtechling, Pete Danko – October 15, 2012 original study: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988312001466
NRDC report: www.nrdc.org/energy/wind-powered-communities/files/wind-communities-ib.pdf
