As intended, the $787 billion stimulus package is creating thousands of “green jobs,” unfortunately the vast majority of those jobs are going overseas, according to a new report conducted jointly by the Investigative Reporting Workshop and ABC News.   

So far, over $2 billion has been spent on wind energy projects through the stimulus package – enough to power 2.4 million homes, the report found. 

Yet, of the money spent thus far, eight of every $10 went to a foreign company, the report says.   

“This is one of those stories in Washington that when you tell people five miles outside the Beltway, or anywhere else in America, they cannot believe it,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, according to ABC News. “It makes people lose faith in government, and it frankly infuriates me.” 

The Investigative Reporting Workshop estimates, stimulus funding for wind projects have created roughly 6,000 manufacturing jobs overseas and only hundreds in America.

Thus far, stimulus funds have paid to create 1,807 wind turbines to fuel American homes, businesses, schools and other buildings.  Just 588 of those were manufactured domestically, according to the report. 

The largest grant thus far – $178 million – for a wind farm in Texas, went to a bankrupt Australian company that outsourced the manufacturing to a Japanese company, the report found. 

The lack of American jobs created by the stimulus package is troublesome for two reasons.  One, the president has said numerous times that the nation that leads in clean energy production in the 21st Century will lead the world’s economy as well.  Judging by the report, it doesn’t appear as though America is leading that race. 

Secondly, the whole intent of the stimulus package was to put America back to work by creating jobs here at home.
   
“Very few jobs here, lots of jobs in China,” Schumer told ABC News. “That is not what I intended or any other legislator who voted for the stimulus intended.” 

The problem would have never arisen had the stimulus bill included strict “buy American” language.  Legislators that fought to include strict domestic procurement wording in the package were rebuffed by White House officials, whom feared to be labeled “protectionists.” 

“It is fine that the Chinese make them. But why don’t we use the stimulus money to start building up an industry to build them here, that was the very point of the stimulus,” Schumer told ABC. “No one even imagined, given how strongly the stimulus advertised jobs in America, that this would happen. I am befuddled that it happened and even more befuddled that the Energy Department is not backing off.”

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