The wind power building boom saved South Dakota’s bacon in 2020, pumping tens of millions of extra tax dollars into state coffers.
But somehow that building boom isn’t keeping South Dakota’s biggest (only?) wind turbine blade manufacturer open for business. Yesterday, Ohio-based Molded Fiber Glass announced it will close its Aberdeen plant by August:
“The closure comes as a result of changes in market conditions, foreign competition and proposed revisions to tax policies impacting the wind energy industry in the United States,” according to the release.
The plant will remain open to fulfill existing wind blade orders through Aug. 6.
Workers at the plant have been informed of the closure and will be privately informed of their last days.
…Molded Fiber Glass has about 300 workers at the 315,000-square-foot facility on the northeast edge of town [staff, “Molded Fiber Glass to Close Aberdeen Plant in August, 300 Workers Will Lose Their Jobs,” Aberdeen American News, 2021.06.08].
Molded Fiber Glass gave Aberdeen a shutdown scare in 2017, when the company said “market conditions and proposed revisions to tax policies” meant they’d have to shut down and kill 409 Aberdeen jobs. Senator John Thune got credit for stopping that closure with favorable revisions of the 2017 tax bill. Molded Fiber Glass touted record business results in 2019. Pandemic be darned, wind turbine production stayed relatively stable through 2020. Big wind farmers GE and Vestas reported lower revenues in Q1 this year but have promising backlogs of orders, and the United States set a first-quarter record for new wind power commissioned this January through March. There appears to be plenty of wind business out there, and since MFG’s former plant boss in Aberdeen, Dave Giovannini, became MFG’s CEO on March 1, so you’d think the CEO would be the best man to point out the usefulness of the Aberdeen plant in supporting the company’s grab for that business.
So we have to wonder now: is this closure announcement for real, or is Molded Fiber Glass trotting out the same language and the same economic threat to lobby for extending the wind energy production tax credit beyond 2021? Is it a ploy to push Senators Thune and Rounds to back the clean-energy aspects of the President Biden’s infrastructure plan? Or, even with South Dakota’s business über alles philosophy, do market conditions really not support the continued operation of Aberdeen’s wind turbine blade plant?
Dave Giovannini probably pulled the rug back on how racist and anti-community the government in South Dakota really is.
Which of these MFG factories will take up the slack, do you suppose?
I’d vote MFG de Mexico, Plants 1 & 2- Apodaca NL
https://www.moldedfiberglass.com/locations/
Federal unemployment is gone too South Dakota. This is a huge blow for Aberdeen, sorry. With all those lying losers there will be hot wind westerlies forever.
Well…I frequently visit Duluth, Minnesota, an international port and the facilities there are usually packed with wind turbine parts. I mean packed. The wind turbines come from the Netherlands and other European countries The European countries are apparently supporting the manufacture of wind turbines.and their export to the USA.
If our GOP cultural warriors could pause a minute from campaigning to actually govern, this seems like a no-brainer. Keep a 21st century industry going with employing SD workers and helping to put money into SD’s pockets.
O- NO! South Dakota needs more tourists so we can fret on TV about how tough it is to find help and blame Joe Biden for not allowing in more migrant workers that we don’t have to pay more to in order to afford to live in the Mississippi of the North! We won’t worry about losing out on federal unemployment, we starve our people so they have to work! And be glad they got a job1
Thanks for linking to that MFG plant map, Porter. Out of 11 manufacturing facilities, Aberdeen appears to be the only one they’ve announced as closing. The company’s statement didn’t say anything about why the Aberdeen plant is the best one to close in response to the non-state-specific conditions they cited as the reason for this pullback.
That map shows Aberdeen is the farthest north of all the facilities and the farthest west of the US facilities. It is the most remote from large population centers. The plant in Kansas looks about as far from an Interstate highway as Aberdeen is; the other locations appear to have better access to big highways… so I wonder about transportation of materials and machinery in and product out.
Does Aberdeen produce anything unique in MFG’s processes? Can the other plants pick up the slack for Aberdeen?
Cory points out that the CEO worked in Aberdeen. Since he no doubt makes the decision about closing a plant, guess he wasn’t happy with his time in MuslimHaterTown.
Porter, I haven’t spoken with Dave since he and his wife left Aberdeen last year. He is the CEO now, so the decision had to have his okee-dokee. He better than anyone could explain the business case for operations in Aberdeen… but apparently he saw factors that said Aberdeen doesn’t have a place in MFG’s business model any more.
Governor Noem, tell us: why didn’t South Dakota’s low wages, low costs, and refusal to mask up during a pandemic convince MFG to keep this plant open in South Dakota?
Maybe Sd is the most difficult state to add them to ag lands
The Crocker hills addition took forever to pass to erect. town that. Perhaps dollar wise is it more economical to produce where they are easier to put up and less costly to haul. Keep the routes short and installations simple.
Windmills are still standing on some old homesteads north of here. Old technology replaced and now it’s new again. Fact is, Noem and the Republicans want big ag, oil/mining businesses, and hunting/tourism to succeed and don’t care about anything else. I doubt if there will be a fight for this plant, it’s economically better to move it. How many of these windmills are being put up in S.D. ? Residents of Campbell County want theirs torn down. They think electric towers and oil pumps are more attractive.
Same old fight with windmills as it is with phone towers. People all want the convenience, but not in their back yard. Also have to contend with those who think they are being manipulated thru their antenna hair follicles or vaccinations that magnetize their brains without realizing that ship has already sailed.
The United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) provides the locations of land-based and offshore wind turbines in the United States, corresponding wind project information, and turbine technical specifications.
The link to the database. https://eerscmap.usgs.gov/uswtdb/
So removing a tax credit will convert a free market capitalist business from profit to loss? That doesn’t seem very free market nor capitalist: seems more socialistic to me.