Colorado Wind Factories Cut Employee Hours

Wind factories in Brighton and Windor, Colorado, cut employee hours from 40 hours to 32 hours. Apparently some deal was made between the state and the company to cut hours and not cut jobs.

The state's unemployment fund will compensate employees for their lost wages for up to 18 weeks.

The 32 hours will also ensure that the employees are eligible for ObamaCare; 30-hours is the federal cut-off, and the new federal guideline for an "official workweek."

The downturn in wind energy in the US is due to loss of a tax credit which will expire on December 31, 2012. My hunch is that the tax credit will be inserted into a defense spending bill sometime next year. It will not be part of the grand ObamaCliff compromise.

For another article on wind energy, also out of Colorado, click here for a story posted just a few days ago.

NextEra is selling electricity to Xcel from its Limon wind farm at an average 3 cents a kilowatt-hour — competitive with coal or natural gas, O'Sullivan said.

That, however, includes the federal wind production tax credit of 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour — a subsidy set to expire, making it unavailable to new wind farms starting next year.

The Limon facility — the last of 17 Colorado wind farms that supply Xcel with power — just beat the deadline.

Without the tax credit, the wind market is projected to contract by as much as 90 percent in 2013.

Coal and natural gas can be had for about 6 cents. I'm not sure why Limon wind farm needs a 2.2 cent tax credit. At 5.5 cent, it seems wind should be a) competitive, and, b) if not "exactly" competitive, it's a small price for consumers to pay the difference.

The real issue is that wind energy has no redeeming features. None.