Not that stimulus spending was going to stimulate the economy, but would it have been too difficult for the money to stay in the U.S? Apparently the answer is yes.
As recently reported by ABC:
Nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been spent on wind power, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4 million homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly 80 percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines.
And what about all those wonderful wind power jobs?
Russ Choma at the Investigative Reporting Workshop provides the following information:
“According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S.”
Our tax dollars have been used to subsidize a costly and unreliable source of electricity that doesn’t do anything but help foreign corporations because they are the ones that manufacture wind turbines.
When it comes to electricity generation, we are “energy independent.” As we restrict coal and nuclear development, we put more pressure on securing natural gas. Unless we allow drilling, we will need to start importing more foreign natural gas. And, as we mandate the purchase of wind power, we are forced to buy wind turbines from overseas. We will certainly be less energy independent if we continue down this path.
