Salazar blames Congress for layoffs

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Monday blamed Congress for layoffs in the wind energy sector. Salazar lashed out at lawmakers for not extending a tax credit to producers of wind energy. The credit is set to expire at the end of the year, but Salazar said companies are already laying off workers for fear that the incentive won’t exist. Salazar said inaction by Congress “has already led to layoffs” and that more layoffs will come if Congress fails to act soon. “That is not the kind of agenda we ought to be working on here in the United States,” he said. A recent study by energy consulting firm Navigant found that not extending the tax credit, which subsidizes wind power production at 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, would cost the U.S. 37,000 jobs. “We can’t afford to lose 30,000 jobs,” Salazar said...more