Senator John Thune has saved 400 jobs in Aberdeen… for a few more months. Molded Fiber Glass announced today that NextEra Energy has ordered enough wind turbine blades to keep MFG’s Aberdeen factory working into the third quarter of the coming year. The order comes after Senator Thune managed to undo the “unintended” trashing of renewable energy tax credits in the original House version of the Trump Tax and leave intact the production tax credits and investment tax credits that benefit renewable energy projects
Maintaining the credits led to Thursday’s formal announcement.
“We are extremely pleased to be able to continue to invest in wind energy in South Dakota,” Armando Pimentel, chief executive officer for NextEra, said in an email from Thune’s office. “The tax bill he fought so hard for preserves the certainty our industry needs to make long-term investments in the state, including the good jobs and economic impact those investments provide” [Victoria Lusk, “MFG to Stay Open Months Longer After Blade Order, Could Hire New Workers,” Aberdeen American News, 2017.12.28].
Thune and friends preserved the timeline for phasing out the production tax credit by the end of 2019.
I smell fear in the air for Roypublicans like our gang in Washington has not smelt (like in the dead fish they have for a party) for some time. Reliable voters are not so reliable any more to the abuse they are seeing under the gang’s watch. This manipulation is great for a few months, but then as with Carrier, the hammer falls and the jobs are lost. Thune has just moved the deck chairs on the Titanic. In order to right the ship, they are gonna have to steal more from Social Security and Medicare.
Hey there Aberdeen, guess who screwed up the tax credits in the first place, the dummy that sits on the planning board for the House, the Roypublican NOem. Indeed, her hinny is so calloused from sitting on it figuring ways to screw us all over, she especially took pride in what she did to the citizens of Aberdeen. Dudes and dudettes in Brown County, come on back to the party that has always cared for you just like it did in the past. Thune did not do this for himself, he did it for NOem because she is to damn dense too know what harm she did. Put Billie Sutton in the governors chair, he will continue too look out for your best interests.
The ole BRAC move, put my base on the closure list so I can save it and be king move
Mr. Voight gets it right about Thune.
Thune has caused chaos and uncertainty by his reckless actions and now wants to ride in on white horse to be a savior.
How much more of the ‘unintended consequences’ or mistakes has the Trump tax sham made?
Is there an unintended economic recession lurking in the shadows?
Tell me again exactly what he “saved”? Sounds more like moving the execution date. Oh well, those folks can always go over to WY and get one of those renewable coal jobs. Oh, wait, those are being mechanized.
Project developers are hopeful for a 200 MW wind farm in the Avon/Tripp area, but the purchaser of the power is not known yet…
https://www.yankton.net/community/article_8921fa70-e53e-11e7-9e65-17966615a282.html
A 105 MW wind farm in western Minnesota may generate 10 full-time jobs and 150 temporary construction jobs, but currently no requirements for hiring local.
https://www.dglobe.com/business/4376741-regional-wind-farm-way-%E2%80%94-without-local-hiring-requirements
I thought our GOP friends were and are for a simplified tax code? I guess representing your state is not as “simple” as some Republican leaders lead you to believe, huh?
Also, this decision today keeps jobs in South Dakota for an other nine months, but then what? I totally agree with Loren’s comment, “….Sounds more like moving the execution date.” Only in South Dakota would this be called good news. What this news really demonstrates is how all too often South Dakota workers are used and seen as merely dispensable with little or no workers’ rights in hand….
Looks like the cynicism related to Noem and Thune is totally appropriate. A few more months of work for 400 people is not insignificant, but now it is also obvious why the plant was originally scheduled to close. Noem, Thune, and Rounds if doing something that appears positive, are usually just undoing something they or the GOP screwed up to begin with. Trump is intent on vandalizing civilization.
I was waiting to see the postcard Trump waved in his hand and kissed saying the new tax code would be so simplified you would only need the postcard to file. What a bunch of HOOEY!
I will never trust Thune,Rounds and Noem. They sold out South Dakotans to placate their wealthy corporate donors.
You fellows would complain if Mr. Thune was on your team and he failed to score 9 points for a touchdown. Take ’em a field goal at a time if you can get ’em, fellows.
“Saved”, Loren? Yes, the term used by my morning paper in its banner headline is “reprieve.”
Grudz, your sports analogy doesn’t paint the entire situation. Perhaps the proper analogy is that MFG was cruising along the highway when Thune and Noem came barreling along in their caddy and knocked MFG into the ditch. After a few minutes, Thune came back, told us that putting us in the ditch was “unintended,” and helped pull us back out of the ditch while Kristi sat in the passenger seat checking her texts.
Sorry, Cory! I just think heaping gratitude on someone like Thune, who is supposed to be some hotshot power broker in the senate, might be better justified if he were to actually help SUSTAIN jobs/industry rather than just slow it’s demise. But that is SD. Big John is wonderful as long as he can stand behind McConnell with a sock in his mouth and look TALL!
Oops! Sorry, Loren—my mock quotes weren’t clear. I agree with you that “saved” belongs in quotes. The jobs were there before Thune went whacking at the tax code. MFG announced closure because of Thune’s boo-boo. Thune repaired his boo-boo, and we’re back to where we were, but only for a few more months, because Thune still was more worried about giving more government handouts to fossil fuels and tilting the field more away from renewable fuels instead of making federal support for renewables permanent. AAN’s use of “reprieve” properly notes the temporary nature of the restored jobs.