chairman i think it is appropriate to begin this hearing today on the recovery act with a reflection on where our nation stood one year ago our economy was in a free fall the dow was below statements spending froze businesses shuttered credit disappeared and everyone wondered when the downward spiral would end while the nation's collective economic security was disappearing before our eyes many of the pillars of american strength have been quietly decaying in the shadows for decades roads and infrastructure were crumbling schools were sinking deeper into mediocrity our middle class was losing ground at the same time china germany and other nations were racing past us in the st century's greatest growth industry clean energy amidst this storm congress passed the american recovery and reinvestment act and it became law on february seventeen two thousand and nine as a result two million people have jobs today that otherwise would not this emergency legislation has not only helped us round the corner on the worst recession in generations it has become the catalyst for reinvesting in america's future nowhere is this reinvestment more apparent than in clean energy where the recovery act targeted ninety  jump start jobs in efficiency wind solar advanced battery technology and countless other critical industries equally important these investments are laying the foundation for a new era of innovation and technology development that will provide the next generation of americans with economic security and job opportunities over the long term while we still have a long journey ahead of us i think we need to take stock of how far we come with the recovery act a decade ago we had a grand total of four hundred and fifty megawatts of solar electricity installed in the united states flash forward we installed four hundred and eighty megawatts of solar in two thousand and nine alone in two thousand and ten the solar industry is likely to bring on line the likely equivalent of a nuclear power plant solar energy programs in the recovery act supported more than ten thousand new jobs in two thousand and nine and it is likely to support another thirty thousand in two thousand and ten then there is wind four years ago twenty five percent of the components of a win was made in america today more than fifty percent is made in america annual additions of wind power have quadrupled during that time from less than two thousand five hundred megawatts in two thousand and five to nearly ten zero new megawatts installed in the united states in two thousand and nine when the wind factories supported by the recovery act come on line over the next couple of years the average content is likely to be over seventy percent in these wind facilities then we have the advanced batteries that are going to power the electric vehicles rolling off assembly lines later this year asia owns ninety eight percent of that market today with recovery act investments the u s global markets share is projected to raise to twenty percent next year and forty percent by two thousand and fifteen imagine the jobs that will be batteries make no mistake clean energy industrialization is happening in america and the recovery act is playing a major part public investment in innovation is a proven all american pathway to long term economic security and job creation the public investment behind neil armstrong's one small step spurred giant technological leaps that ensured american economic security for generations the recovery act reoriented america to the future and refocused our efforts and our strengths our strength is our ability to innovate as we move forward into a clean energy future we will wean ourselves from our greatest weakness addiction to oil the recovery act laid that foundation a long term policy like the waxman markey bill which the house passed last june will ensure that the thousand flowers of the recovery act are likely to fully bloom that completes could be worse the unemployment rate is hovering around ten percent and the economy has lost around three point three million jobs since congress passed the eight hundred and sixty two dollars billion stimulus bill but the majority has still convened today's hearing to celebrate the bill as a success no matter how sluggish our economy gets they always can pretend that things are better than they could have been i am still hopeful that last year's eight hundred and sixty two dollars billion stimulus bill will help get people back to work but this is mostly wishful thinking evidence already shows that this massive government program is unlikely to produce any significant growth in the workforce there are good intentions behind some of these so called green jobs projects but we also need accountability the stimulus program was a failure and we need an honest accounting as to why spending government money can create jobs but most of these jobs are entirely dependent upon the government's subsidies take away the subsidy the job goes too based on per unit of energy output wind and solar energy products received fifty times more subsidy than coal the subsidies required to create these green jobs result in the loss of economically sustainable jobs in other industries experiences abroad have already documented this fact spain spent one dollar sixty cents billion to subsidize its solar industry a study from a spanish university however found that for every job this money created it cost the economy two point two jobs in other industries the same study also found that nine out of ten jobs created by the subsidies were temporary in nature the obama administration immediately attacked the study but critics must account for the fact that since implementing the subsidies the unemployment rate in spain has climbed to nearly twenty percent i know the  playbook is to argue that things would have been worse without the subsidies but when one in five people are unemployed how much worse can it get the administration was so frightened by the spanish statistics that it took what the department of energy employees described competitive enterprise institute made it clear that the administration's rebuttal was written in conjunction with wind lobbyists and other advocacy groups this blatant conflict of interest not only undermines the integrity of attack but also exposes the agenda of the report sponsors unfortunately for us the stimulus bill might actually be of some help to spain the investigative reporting work a product of the school of communication of american university found that a majority of the program's grants went to foreign owned companies and that a majority of the turbines purchased with the money were built by foreign manufacturers the workshop found that of the one  cents billion in clean energy grants handed out by the government since september one eighty four percent a total of seven hundred and forty nine dollars million have gone to foreign wind companies the spanish utility company i berdrolla sa alone has collected five hundred and forty five dollars million through its american subsidiary in response to a letter from democratic senators criticizing the stimulus program secretary chu wrote that  all the wind turbine installation jobs are created here in america so we are spending u s taxpayer money to create long term manufacturing jobs abroad and consoling ourselves because we are also creating a few short term construction jobs here at home the job creation benefits of the stimulus package were further undermined by the democrats political alliance with unions the government accountability office recently found that the pro union davis bacon language in the stimulus bill meant energy department officials have to spend valuable time determining the prevailing wages for these so called green jobs this bureaucratic exercise cost valuable time during a period where many americans needed the work in the case of weatherization the energy department spent only eight percent of the nearly five dollars billion budgeted to improve energy efficiency in homes across the country indeed a study by the heritage foundation shows that davis bacon rules require government contractors to pay wages that average twenty two percent above the market rate and suspending davis bacon rules would let the government hire one hundred and sixty thousand additional workers am glad that brian johnson of americans for tax reform is here to tell us more he will testify that davis bacon rules reduced the jobs creating benefits that the stimulus bill sought to create the question is what are the priorities of the authors of the stimulus bill i also want to welcome mary ann wright of johnson controls who are based in my district and thank her and her company for their work in cutting edge battery power i believe the only way we can confront climate change is through technology breakthroughs and i am in fact a lead author and original sponsor of the hybrid truck act which has twice passed the house i hope this hearing proves to be the beginning of legitimate oversight rather than an attempt to spin ineffective to examine how the recovery act has played a key role in maintaining and fostering the new energy economy i supported the recovery and reinvestment act in order to prevent the worst recession since world war ii from lasting longer and going deeper to build act funds with fifty percent cost share to install smart metering technology and sioux valley energy electric cooperative was awarded four dollars million to install smart meters as virtually every economist agrees we needed an aggressive recovery package to stem the loss of jobs to save jobs to create jobs and to reinvigorate demands for goods and services that had evaporated in the economic collapse triggered by the financial meltdown originating from risky and unconscionable actions on wall street o nation was in a free fall losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month and we needed to act as south dakota's republican governor has said the recovery act played a key role in balancing south dakota's budget in multiple years while reducing cuts to critical programs as our state suffered from the downturn moreover one of the key components of the recovery act conveniently overlooked by its critics is over a third of it is tax cuts for families and businesses including a long term extension of the production tax credit for and twelve a tax credit of up to eight hundred dollars per family for two thousand and nine and two thousand and ten tax relief for small businesses and a cut in the capital gains tax for those who invest in small businesses in addition i have met with homegrown wind developers and other domestically headquartered wind blade manufacturers who have brought hundreds of jobs to south dakota who have praised the recovery act's extension of the production tax credit and the new treasury grant lieu of the investment tax credit included in the recovery act i have heard firsthand how these measures are allowing the survival of domestic wind development in the united states creating jobs and fostering economic development in rural communities so i thank you at the impact of the arra legislation mister chairman i was in the room as a member of the financial services committee i was sitting there when not dramatically unlike the table before us today and from their lips fell the most bone chilling testimony i have ever heard since being in government they explained to us that if the fed did not act quickly that the u s economy would fall from the precipice taking with it the economy of the planet president bush pushed hard to take action and i don't disagree and we took action we then after electing president obama began to address this problem that was deepening even after trying to try to completely turn things around with less than a trillion dollar stimulus nonetheless we approved it and i supported it and supported it strongly if you look at the job losses in the united states over the last decade you would be alarmed because many of those jobs even after this recession ends will not return and i fear that the three point five unemployment full employment number is going to have to be adjusted that no longer can we expect full employment to be when three point five percent of the american public is unemployed to go up after this recession is over so the only thing remaining for us to do is to create new jobs and arra gave us the opportunity to create new jobs in kansas city missouri one of the cities i represent in missouri we used the money to create what is called the green impact zone one hundred and fifty blocks of the most decrepit piece of geography in urban america one census track shows unemployment at seventy percent did a story on this track and called it the murder factory we have been able since arra to get a matching grant from the department of energy to match a twenty four dollars million grant from our power and light company to begin the construction of a smart grid men and women are hired today this day who live in the green impact zone who will be a part of the construction team for the smart grid and we are weatherizing three thousand homes and the men and women doing the weatherization are men and women who  gentleman the gentlelady from california ms speier ms speier thank you mister chairman i am glad that we are here today to discuss clean energy jobs which are crucial not only for our economic recovery but for our long term economic growth on monday of this week i organized a bus tour to inspect the progress of recovery projects in my district from three hundred construction jobs at san francisco airport job training for transportation workers new buses fueled by biofuel aid to services for the unemployed and a collaborative partnership to secure two dollars million in grants to re house the homeless i can see the impact of timely and targeted recovery funding working in my district what was very interesting during the tour was i visited a company that built super efficient surge protectors for our electric grid to shield consumers from blackouts the company received eight point five million arra grant dollars to fund an installation in southern california and has already expanded its headquarters to a larger facility one thing they pointed out to me though was that there is no testing facility in the united states so they have to actually transport this huge piece of equipment to vancouver to test it another opportunity for us to start growing some of these opportunities at home another company based in south san francisco received twenty one dollars million in recovery funding to build an advanced biofuels refinery in pennsylvania which will create jobs in both locations and will help them scale up production of a cutting edge renewable biofuel which will help us break our addiction to oil finally my district is home to the nation's leading solar power provider for homeowners on up to federal the clean energy economy and if it wasn't for arra we would be giving a huge head start to china arra allowed us to get out of the chute at least to begin getting into this competition with the rest of the world to see who is going to be preeminent in clean energy and i just want to make two points about why arra was successful in getting us into the race two companies i will mention i met a fellow from johnson controls the other day who said they are going to start building a lithium ion battery manufacturing plant in michigan hopefully construction this fall which would not have happened but for arra and we would not have any meaningful manufacturing plant in the united states but for arra in witnesses who have been told what the order will be i thought maybe we could start with you mary ann wright vice president of johnson controls and managing director of the company's business accelerator project for advanced energy storage chairman markey congressman sensenbrenner and the rest of the members thank you very much for inviting us here to tell you what we are doing with our recovery matching grant and i also appreciate that you did it today because i have to head back milwaukee and greet all of my new employees in milwaukee that we are hiring as a result of the work we are doing in the united states i have three things that i want to talk about one is the state of the industry in general number two is what we are doing with our stimulus grant and number three is the challenges that we face i think you have a packet of some pictures it is also in the written testimony and i would like to kind of talk you through this because if you look at this what should pop out at you is it is a pretty scary picture if you take a look over in the right a cell which is this and there is about one hundred to two hundred of them in these electric vehicles fifty to seventy five percent of the value is in the cell all of these materials come from virtually the pacific rim who has a stranglehold on the supply base over on the left hand side is the system and that is where we put the cells and integrate it and put it into the vehicle and if you think about this for a minute if we don't change this we will change our oil cartel our opec oil cartel for an asian battery cartel and to scare you a little bit more our pacific rim friends aren't standing still they continue to invest in manufacturing capability technology and capacity production we support our customers ford azure dynamics jaguar land rover and volkswagen in two thousand and nine we were the recipient of a stimulus grant and the key thing that i would like you to take away and  congressman inslee you stole my thunder and the fact is in the absence of this grant we would not have expanded our manufacturing in the united states we were looking in europe and in asia but because of this action we are going to build our first manufacturing facility in holland michigan as a matter of fact it is up we are retrofitting it and we will begin production later this year for one of our customers and begin full scale cell production next year we are moving fast we are moving decisively and  facility and i think that is a real feather in our cap versus what is typically happening in our economy when we were awarded our grants our commitment wasn't just to put up a plant but that we would help stand up an industry and that involves everything from our raw materials suppliers all the way to our end of life recycling infrastructure johnson controls presently is the largest provider of your starter batteries and the largest recycler of these batteries as well so we are going to build on those capabilities of a long standing mature company and industry to be able to transition that into lithium ion but if you think about the materials for a moment as i said most of those comes from the pacific rim one of our commitments is to develop a domestic supply base i am very happy to let you know that we have recruited two asian suppliers to the united states who will be setting up business in michigan and supplying the u s market we need to continue to develop a domestic supply base well we have great partners in ford motor company azure daimler bmw we have terrific long standing partnerships with argonne national laboratory in oakridge to continue our work on our technology in milwaukee which is our headquarters for this business we have stood up a team called the accelerator team which i lead and our job is to accelerate the demand creation and the technology and innovation so that we can have a sustainable business that does not rely on subsidies and incentives that can be profitable four million units of global capacity versus two million units of demand in north america alone there will be about two million units of capacity and eight hundred zero units of demand we have got to find a way to fill that  transition of government fleets is going to be an important piece of that because one it allows us to drive scale which is a key part of our business equation and number two we have over a million units in these fleets in the gsa and postal service which are perfectly suited because i am running out time respectfully i want to leave you with one key piece however is that we need to make sure we leverage these recovery investments as we transition these fleets and as we build our industry should we give preference to vehicles that are built with batteries and electric drive components that come from investments that we made here in the united states so that we don't allow these vehicles and this industry to transition from a middle of experience in the energy industry and has been involved in the financing of these projects around the world we welcome you sir mister gaynor thank you chairman markey ranking member sensenbrenner and members of the committee thank you for inviting me to testify today my name is paul gaynor i am the ceo of first wind a u s owned independent wind energy company based in massachusetts we are focused on the development financing construction ownership and operation of utility scale wind farms in the united states we have been in business since two thousand and two and today we operate about five hundred megawatts of clean renewable wind power through six operating projects in maine new york utah and hawaii currently we are wrapping up construction on our seventh project the stetson ii expansion in maine all in all these facilities represent an investment of approximately one dollar twenty cents billion first wind currently employs over two hundred professionals in nine states in this new industry in the communities that we work we also rely heavily on people in these communities with local knowledge in order to properly site build and operate wind farms our projects generate significant amounts of employment and economic activity which i will cover in more detail shortly have been asked to address the impact of the clean energy provisions of the recovery act on our company and the answer in short is the recovery act has been profoundly important to our ability to continue to grow and to make investments in renewable energy facilities this has also resulted in approximately one thousand jobs in two thousand and nine and we expect a similar number in two thousand and ten the convertible investment tax credit or itc has had the most impact with the collapse of the credit markets in two thousand and eight sources of capital practically dried up overnight as a relevant example we lost a one hundred and forty dollars million firm commitment from lehman brothers for a project that was under construction in new york then lehman filed for bankruptcy and the commitment was lost at that point all sources of capital were frozen and an analysis by the american wind energy association shows that in two thousand and nine wind power development might drop as much as fifty percent from the  fortunately congress and the obama administration recognized the threat that this extraordinary economic turmoil presented to our industry and responded with urgency and effectiveness thanks in large part to the clean energy provisions of the recovery act the u s wind industry broke all previous records by installing nearly ten thousand megawatts in two thousand and nine as the chairman noted in his opening comments the recovery act provided the help we needed when we needed it during two thousand and nine first w completed construction of wind facilities in maine new york and utah and began construction on another project in maine in partnership with our general contractors rmt in wisconsin mortenson construction in minnesota and reed and reed in maine we created  r one thousand jobs during the construction of these facilities and without the convertible tax credit program the construction job creation and long lasting economic impacts would not have happened using the stetson projects and the ongoing expansion as an example the combined facility represents a two hundred and twenty dollars million investment with over one hundred and thirty local named businesses providing goods and services during the development and construction phases about five hundred and fifty construction jobs in both phases for another example i draw your attention to the pamphlet that i have handed out which outlines the economic benefits of our two hundred megawatt milford wind project in utah in this project over sixty local businesses participated creating two hundred and fifty jobs on site and supporting an additional two hundred jobs in the region additionally because of the recovery act we have been aggressive in forging ahead with our business plans in two thousand and ten and beyond we plan to construct a second phase in utah plus additional projects in maine vermont new york and hawaii representing an additional three hundred megawatts of power capacity and an incremental six hundred and fifty dollars million of new investment in this sector the success of the  program has importantly sent a strong signal to the capital markets and mobilized significant incremental capital in our case the recovery act funding has spurred an additional six hundred and ninety five dollars million of our own equity and loans from banks we expect a similar impact on our two thousand and ten plans wind power is a capital intensive business and thus the opportunity to use recovery act funding to leverage significant private investment has been extraordinarily effective and important additionally i want to let you know that last week secretary chu announced that one of our projects has received a conditional commitment from the doe under the innovative loan guarantee program the kahuku project in hawaii uses an innovative battery storage system to address some of the wind integration issues facing the local utility we encourage congress to follow the leadership of chairman markey and others on this committee who are trying to foster a more stable and predictable investment and regulatory climate for renewable energy in particular we h our next witness is lisa patt mcdaniel she is the director of the ohio department of development and she leads efforts to accelerate ohio's economic growth through development of high growth industries from homeless assistance to renewable energy deployment ohio's nationally recognized home weatherization assistance program is administered by our department's community development division and specifically our office of community services we are providing assistance for citizens whose annual household income is at or below two hundred percent of the federal poverty guidelines the state's weatherization budget from the federal stimulus is two hundred and sixty six dollars million more than thirty two thousand housing units will be weatherized during the three year grant period and more families will get the help they sorely need and local businesses will see an increase in sales of materials supplies and trucks to carry out the larger program ohio's process for utilizing weatherization resources effectively and expeditiously is one of the reasons i have the honor of speaking to you today ohio was recently recognized by the usdoe as leading the nation in spending recovery act dollars to weather ze homes with ohio completing more than one in five of the projects reported nationally last year since july two thousand and nine our state has weatherized over eight thousand one hundred homes dwellings weatherized to date represent one hundred and three of another thousand jobs and retained one thousand five hundred jobs as of december of two thousand and nine we believe there are several reasons why our state was able to ramp up and respond to the needs of our citizens so quickly just to highlight we have an excellent weatherization network we have a large list of eligible households that we had before the recovery act was passed we have an excellent ohio weatherization training center it is run by a corporation for ohio appalachian development and we established three training hubs so we can train people to work in these jobs quickly and importantly we instructed our providers to go ahead and start weatherizing homes with these funds as of july  knowing that we would have to make up our staff salaries and retroactively adjust them once the prevailing wage rates were issued by the department of energy by reducing household energy expenditures increasing energy efficiency and increasing the safety of homes owned or occupied by low income ohioans we have a foundation to make our state a cleaner more efficient place to live there are several important programs that complement our efforts to create jobs and promote energy efficiency and these are through the state energy program which received ninety six dollars million of recovery assistance we designed programs through that set of money to stimulate the economy through the retention and creation of jobs saving energy increasing generation from renewable energy projects and reducing greenhouse gas emissions i am going to briefly touch on the programs that we designed with that ninety six dollars million but the programs programs we set up a deploying renewable energy in ohio initiative which is investing more than forty two dollars million of those funds through renewable deployment projects focusing on strengthening ohio's manufacturing industry transforming waste value by capitalizing on what would otherwise by considered waste by products from ohio's agricultural and food production industries and turning it into a source of renewable energy we took eight dollars million and allocated it to making efficiency work through grants to help fund greater energy efficiency projects our targeting industry efficiency program provides for fifteen dollars million in grants to manufacturing companies seeking to improve the sustainability of ohio's industry the banking on new energy financing which we also call the ohio energy gateway fund is a private public partnership which will expand access to capital to grow and sustain the fuel cell solar wind and energy storage industries in ohio and finally setting the stage for ohio's carbon management strategy initiative which is allocating five hundred thousand dollars to organize an integrated collaborative planning process to address energy policy the announcement of the targeted industr efficiency portion of the state energy program will create an estimated two hundred and seventeen jobs across the state in conclusion i would just like to say that we are building on the foundation with the recovery act funds and they have been very important to us in promoting ohio's economy i thank the chairman and the ranking member and the committee members for having me speak today the chairman thank you  most efficient and highest power silicon solar cells and modules and we use low cost and manufacturing techniques to do so therefore we can beat the chinese at their own game in fact this is what we make in norcross georgia it is about four point three watts when the sun photovoltaics at georgia tech university with a deep patent portfolio of american patents and technology and access to one of the best solar labs in the world for our research and development it is a great example of governmental funded research helping create u industry leadership and one hundred and fifty new jobs since two thousand and seven when we were founded very good well paying jobs i might add we currently have a hundred megawatts of capacity in our plant in atlanta and we do produce the highest efficiency at low cost solar cells in the world we produce eighteen percent efficiency cells today most of our competitors are at about sixteen point eight percent and that efficiency of course represents the amount of sunlight actually converted to electricity we expanded in two thousand this was very important to the expansion and being able to add these jobs sooner than we would have been able to domestic demand has also been stimulated for solar thanks to the treasury's one thousand six hundred and three provisions which gave us the additional confidence to move up the expansion dates earlier than planned as well as for our plant too which i will mention in a minute and the demand there is turning into real business here in the united states we currently employ many former auto workers and managers from shuttered gm and ford plants in the atlanta metro area and twenty four percent of largest solar farm in india in karnataka state which prime minister singh will dedicate this month himself is also powered by american technology made in norcross georgia the roof of the new sports stadium in new delhi which will be home to the commonwealth games has one point one megawatts of suniva cells we have power fields in germany italy and france powered by suniva and the list is growing we plan to export at least eighty five percent of our production this year which is greatly expanded from last year if we can expand quick enough our problem is we are sold out we have had to turn away new export customers since last december unfortunately including another chinese company that wants to buy my products we have had to impose limits on the allocations to our current customers i was in india three weeks ago on a u s commerce department trade mission and had to turn business away i am sad to say that chinese and taiwanese workers will benefit from that and get that business rather than more u s workers the chinese and taiwanese are very very serious about owning the solar pv value chain which we in this country have neglected far too long and they will own it like they own many other manufacturing industries if we don't continue to do what you started to do in the last year to help support us  got to stay ahead of them but we have also got to spend money on expanding and creating new jobs to meet that customer demand it is a big tradeoff and right now it is hard to borrow money still it is damn hard to borrow money still i am sorry to say we are currently building out a thirty thousand square foot physical extension to our facility in atlanta right now adding a new seventy megawatt line that is fifty new direct jobs we are hiring right now and two hundred indirect jobs in construction an extension of extra funding in c like the president has asked for will help us a lot especially if it is refundable quickly so we can turn it into cash we would immediately apply if that were to happen reasonable financing is very hard to get we are planning our second plant a four hundred megawatt initial capacity plant in chinese we need u s based solar industries as a matter of national security i believe i invite all of you to come to atlanta see our facility and see the jobs see the former auto workers and the veterans working there it is real thank you economy every dollar spent attempting to force the market toward a specific sector is subject to taxation and must be first borrowed out of our economy the result is a redistribution of existing purchasing power rather than the creation of new purchasing power this spending creates less economic activity than if the money had been left with private sector investors the goal was to create three point six million jobs according to the administration's own estimates since signed into law we have lost three point three million jobs according to recovery gov there were four hundred and forty non existing congressional districts that saved or created false jobs to the tune of two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars per job any potential impact the recovery package brought to the economy was virtually negated by the application of  one market distorting wage law known as the davis bacon act investigators from the office of inspector general found that quote one or more errors existed in one hundred percent of the wage reports they reviewed the davis bacon act inflates wages on average by twenty two percent nationwide and construction costs by almost ten percent application of this wage law added seventeen dollars billion to the recovery act and is impeding efficient implementation of the weatherization program nationwide mismanagement of the recovery  only encompasses wasting money in the united states but much of the money spent actually creates jobs overseas eighty percent of the first one dollar billion spent on grants to wind energy companies went to foreign firms in the second round of government grants seventy nine percent of the two  two hundred and eighty megawatts using their estimate the installation of these turbines may have created as many as six thousand eight hundred and thirty eight manufacturing jobs overseas domestically the market altering subsidization has the same economic effects the mohave desert solar power project received one dollar forty cents billion from the recovery act construction of that facility required a thousand workers but only eighty six permanent employees to run the plant that is sixteen dollars million in taxpayer subsidies per permanent job in florida the  solar center was to be the quote largest solar power plant in the u s according to president obama the center received one hundred and fifty dollars million from the recovery act after using four hundred construction workers to build the site the solar center now only employs two people the single largest wind grant under the program reported by the department of energy on december th was one hundred and seventy eight dollars million for the texas gulf wind farm in sarita texas all one hundred and eighteen turbines erected on the farm were built by mitsubishi a japanese firm that does not build wind components in the united states perhaps the most evident use of mismanagement and inherent inefficiencies lie in the failed weatherization program while some states have experienced success national results have been dismal the recovery act provided five dollars billion to weatherize five hundred and ninety three  homes abc news reports that less than ten thousand homes have been weatherized nationwide while the department of energy claims twenty two thousand homes have been impacted which is still less than four percent of the targeted goal so far the inspector general found the jobs impact has quote  not materialized and the application of the costly davis bacon requirement costs fifty seven thousand dollars per home weatherized nationwide on a national average a state by state look exposes the localized impact of this flawed national program new york has three hundred and ninety expenditure in the stimulus weatherization program is two hundred and seventy dollars million not one penny of that went to actual home weatherization but was given to the department of energy to administer grants the recovery act was supposed to be timely effective and show immediate results the realization is  the invisible hand of the government to artificially tilt the economy will never be sustainable responsible solutions should remove barriers for private investment and should incorporate an all of the above energy approach using a diverse blend of sources without raising taxes or increasing the regulatory b  if you are criticizing government subsidies in the development of energy technology and then make sure that you are is that  should we say we are not helping create any new jobs we are going to sit around and remain happy and allow the rest of the world johnson the bill should have been a broad based massive tax cut bill with no government spending mister cleaver okay and so what about the fact that the rest of the world is taking off in terms of their package has not done anything near to what the economists predicted and what the administration said the international experience hasn't been always positive spain germany and denmark have experienced extreme job losses in direct relation to targeted government subsidies with respect toward the green d been sitting in this seat what you said let's just forget everybody forget everything let's just have some more tax cuts that by the way were passed without any kind of means of making up for the tax loss would that have been your policy mister johnson if i was sitting in that chair right now there were several things i would have done passing a massive spending bill is not one of them repealing  sixty five cents an hour so i am coming out of public housing i am concerned about everyday human beings who are losing their jobs and suffering and now have the opportunity to get a job  today just for bit of a background i represent the state of west virginia which we know is a very energy rich state in natural resources since the stimulus bill was passed our unemployment has gone from in january of two thousand and nine six point seven to up over ten five percent and it is steadily climbing a source of great concern for us in our state i am interested on a couple of issues first of all the statement by mister johnson that and mister gaynor you may be able to help with this that eighty percent of the dollars that went for wind production were for foreign companies that are manufacturing  percent is it is true that means forty seven percent is coming from overseas i think the trend is certainly favorable my view is one of the things that is making that happen is the recovery act misess capito i think that  combination of coal gas and nuclear it is georgia power which is owned by the southern company misess capito disturbing in your testimony in my viewpoint is that you have opportunity for business expansion that you said you just saw three weeks ago in india were unable to take advantage of that if we are being told that we need to replace our fossil fuel jobs with green jobs and you can't expand your business and we are buying components from all around the world and not in the united states how can we reasonably think that the replacement of coal miners and others is going to take place here in this country when obviously we are not competing well internationally this is the question i have that if we are going to have the green jobs in our country and  states that are going to be penalized under a cap and trade proposal how are we going to attract these jobs into our states mister ashley well i can't comment i don't propose taking now is bringing irrigation to people for the first time ever because of the locational flexibility of solar it is not just about the u s the us could do a heck of a lot more especially in georgia but a lot of people have fought it so long look we need power especially even though i did not vote for the stimulus package i in my district do have a very expansive clean coal carbon sequestration experimentation going on right now at the a p plant the mountaineer plant on the ohio river right across cleaver you spoke about the tax credits or i should say the tax cuts that you supported and i think it is really important when you speak up on this issue that you be  knowledgeable the actual arra funding the largest amount of money in arra is for tax cuts it is two hundred and eighty eight dollars billion in tax cuts the next largest amount is two hundred and seventy five dollars billion which is in fact the money that is being distributed to try and create jobs and then the third area is two hundred and twenty four dollars billion which is unemployment benefits coupled with other measures the economic offset is far too great the spending component of this bill completely skews the economy these jobs would not be created they are saying they are not taking jobs away from other people and with all due respect you need this money to create these jobs or the private sector would not create them on their own which means they are not there yet ms speier thank you mister johnson i would like to give an opportunity to all of the other participants on the panel to respond to mister johnson's  ranked number fifteen in the wall street journal's top fifty there are people wanting to give us money in the private sector as well but we need help from the government right now to expand faster and quicker just because debt is in such terrible shape in this country solar is getting because of efficiency work that companies like us are doing much much much more competitive in the market and the people that are the antagonists of solar constantly use old pricing and it is very viable it is getting more viable but if we are serious about not letting the chinese the taiwanese and others own this industry we need to do more here just like they are doing they think it is important they are investing a heck of a time but the key right now is the financial situation that banks are in in lending borrowing money you can't get money even with a very positive scenario the interest rates they want to charge you and the terms are very onerous and it is still very difficult  well i think quite simply if you take a look at where we believe the transportation industry is going to go in an uncertain time frame whether it is over the next five years or fifty years there is an awful lot of risk and technological uncertainty around how we will transport ourselves around and the fact is the united states does not have the infrastructure to be prepared to make that transition over the past several decades have allowed our manufacturing base to erode become a service economy and frankly while we are technology leaders we allow the countries around the world to implement it and commercialize it and so from our perspective one we would not have been coming to the united states to do this two we need to continue to expand our r and d and technological capabilities so that we cannot only catch up but start to lead and that is risky and private sector is not going to bear that cost all by itself we are going to need strong collaboration with the government and that is going to be skin in the game for private sector skin in the game for the government as well so from our perspective we are a for profit company and we are for allowing market forces to take their course but there are unnatural events and disruptive events taking place that are going to change how we get ourselves around and we have to do it as a partnership ms speier ms patt mcdaniel there were a lot of statistics that mister johnson was spewing out that would suggest that weatherization is not working bacon only thirty percent of our agencies had to adjust their payroll which meant that those jobs were well paying in the first place so davis bacon certainly hasn't hampered the program the adjustments were not significant and i think that i would be the last person also to say to the one thousand men and women who were trained and are now working with a trade to weatherize homes shouldn't have had those programs and that we shouldn't you from our perspective if we take a long view on the policy of getting this country towards independent more energy independent then what the recovery act did in the short term is send  signal to the capital markets that the government is going to put some skin in the game and that is certainly what happened and i would argue that it was a crucial bridge that the government provided in the  people were predicting that wind was going to just go right off a cliff that we were going to drop from eight thousand four hundred new megawatts of electrical generation from wind in two thousand and eight  because we were deep in a recession because the economic climate was not good that perhaps we could go down to only four thousand megawatts of new winds that was generated in the united states but then because of the stimulus bill we wound up producing ten thousand new megawatts of wind in the united states and what a great story that is because just for people who aren't really familiar with  that a nuclear power plant one thousand megawatt nuclear power plant you think of a nuclear power plant that you might have heard of seabrook diablo canyon you name it that is about one thousand megawatts a nuclear power plant ten thousand new megawatts of wind installed in the united states in two thousand and nine alone it went up when everybody predicted it was going to be cut in half and so that is a tremendous story because obviously that wind is in the united states of america those facilities will be going for a long long time and as we move to electrifying our automotive fleet the electricity that we are putting into the vehicles will be generated here in the united states we won't be importing oil from opec we can tell opec we don't need their oil anymore than we need their sand because we are going to start generating the electricity for the all electric vehicles for the hybrid electric vehicles here in the united states so that is a tremendous story so let me go back over to you mister johnson of the seven hundred and eighty seven dollars billion in the recovery package two hundred and eighty eight dollars billion of the seven hundred and eighty seven dollars billion were tax cuts so did you support the two hundred and eighty eight dollars billion worth of tax cuts mister johnson i support tax cuts on their own not when they are coupled with a massive government spending the chairman but if we just made it congressman cleaver in over here okay as he is listening to this and also the same thing is true for extension of health care benefits to people who have lost their health care benefits you also don't believe that that is a good expenditure of federal money between now and two thousand and twenty that would be one hundred and ten thousand new megawatts of wind on top of the thirty five zero megawatts that the united states already has the ten thousand in two thousand and nine the eight thousand four hundred in two thousand and eight and then much smaller numbers in the preceding years but that would wind up at one hundred and forty five thousand new megawatts of wind installed in the united states by the year two thousand and twenty and the entire nuclear industry after decades of subsidies from the federal taxpayers only has one hundred zero has a total of one hundred thousand megawatts which is about eighteen percent of all electrical generating capacity is that a realistic goal for the wind you want to scale up to that level doing ten thousand megawatts a year increasing domestic manufacturing you have to assume that with all of that additional capacity that will be built in the u s that the price per unit will come down years ago only twenty five percent of the components of a wind turbine were made in the united states and in two thousand and nine after the stimulus bill the recovery package  makes a lot more sense the chairman that sounds great so you are saying during the bush administration twenty five percent of wind turbine component parts were made in the united states during the obama administration the percentage doubled to over fifty  that is a huge shift from the bush administration which was clearly allowing for these component parts to be built overseas that we had to import them from other countries and clearly the bush administration was just turning a blind eye to this incredible drain of revenue but under the obama position we now see a dramatic increase in domestic production we see a capacity being built here in our country and a turnaround from this bush administration era perspective that had us in our country were being imported from other countries as well what a disastrous policy for our country so now with this installation of new renewable energy resources in our country we see more domestic production we actually see the jobs being created here in our country and we are seeing a reduction actually in the importation of oil in our country all of it great especially with these new battery technologies that ms wright and johnson control are beginning to manufacture here in our country which will make it possible  going to be a piece of that technical pie as well and as i mentioned in my comments we were awarded a conditional commitment from the doe for one of our projects in hawaii that we are building this for the record we actually included sixty dollars to one hundred dollars billion for carbon capture and sequestration technology for the coal industry but of course peabody coal is leading the opposition to that bill peabody the industries that want to move forward but we are not going to allow them at the same time the peabody coals of the world to say don't make any progress at all on any front we can't block because we can't make progress on all solar installation in the united states so almost as you are saying it is like half of the nuclear power plant was installed in solar in the united states in two thousand and nine mister ashley yes sir in our industry association the latest solar incentive program yeah and so with a solar incentive program we were able to double the amount of solar in one year produced here in the united states creating upwards of ten thousand jobs mister ashley yes sir that is correct  and i think going forward it will also be important to develop the domestic industry because even some of the foreign my competitors that are foreign will come here and build plants if the industry is big enough i don't like that but it yes and to be fair going back to the initial stimulus bill in december of two thousand and eight when the tax credit was extended for three years or several years et cetera from that point forward and then when the obama administration came in it really gave the industry a shot in the arm and the confidence to expand the chairman so what i am hearing is that there is a massive reindustrialization of the united states going on that we have moved under the bush era  with only twenty five percent of wind jobs here in the united states and we import seventy five percent to now it is over fifty percent of the wind jobs are here in the united states and the percentage keeps going up  almost each month goes by i think the ultimate goal is that seventy percent of all of the wind jobs will be here in the united states by the time the obama stimulus package is completed and that is a big good news story because people are wondering where are the jobs for the next generation going to come from what is the next new industry in our country so what we are hearing from mister ashley and mister gaynor and ms wright are huge good news stories in terms of jobs here for americans and mister johnson seems to support using tax credits to accomplish these goals he hasn't voiced any opposition to tax credits creating these incentives so here we have a huge area of agreement and an agreement do you agree mister johnson that at least in these areas that the tax breaks are working and we are creating these jobs that are helping to put people back to work in our own country  like spending federal dollars on unemployment insurance for unemployed americans but what we are trying to as you can probably appreciate is we don't like paying unemployment benefits either we actually hate the idea of unemployment benefits if people can have a job so we are trying to create the jobs over here that could then make it unnecessary for people to have to go in and to actually apply for unemployment benefits the evidence that we actually have that people don't like to collect unemployment benefits is that when unemployment went down to four percent in our country all the people who are now unemployed actually took jobs and worked in them but when jobs are not available unfortunately and much to their own personal chagrin they are forced to go in to accept unemployment benefits but we have evidence that every single ethnic group in the united states whites blacks asians hispanics and male and female all take jobs when they are available to them but unfortunately because of a recession unemployed but we recognize the moral necessity of helping people in those times of desperation these kinds of programs are working and working very successfully let me turn back to the gentleman from missouri to see if he has any additional points  as a maitre d and then did yards on the weekends and sent four kids through college i can remember my father being unemployed one of the most miserable times of my life seeing him almost in depression but the question related to what i have just said is do you know how we know that how we determine whether or not people get unemployment  because you said you thought it was a disincentive for people to get jobs the only people who can get unemployment checks are the people looking for jobs you have to go to the state unemployment bureau seeking a job to get unemployment compensation so it is not a disincentive the only people who get this are out struggling trying to find jobs and as the chairman mentioned they are not eight point four million still think it is i have read several studies specifically from james sherk an economist at the heritage foundation that say several things to the contrary of what you just stated that it actually helps prolong individuals not find finding work is a fact so knowing that fact do you now change mister johnson it is also a fact that since the stimulus package has been signed into law we have lost three point three million jobs i am glad these individuals here are creating jobs and the ohio weatherization program is a huge success i will grant th that the inspector general report even recognizes it as a success but it is one of the only states having success with this program there are individual success stories everywhere but the package as a whole and the reality is the jobs have not been created since the stimulus package and that was its goal to create jobs more work has been created for certain individuals who have jobs but the overall jobs impact has not materialized mister cleaver so now that you know that the fact that you have to be looking for a job to get an unemployment check now that you know that to be a fact it is unquestionable if anybody in here can contradict it you are saying you still believe that it is a disincentive   absolutely have nothing in common with regard to our political views we just like each other and so we can argue and not get angry and still sit down and have lunch the one th ing i guess we don't do which is why we have a relationship is because when he can prove something i say okay and the same on the other side so i guess my frustration a disincentive and people don't know any differently they then begin to embrace the beliefs that there are some people who are just lazy sitting around taking tax dollars and i grew up in a situation like that  weatherization do you find that there are a lot of people who want to work as soon as you announce there are new jobs available do you have any problem finding people who want to work as soon as you put out an ad for new employees mister gaynor mister gaynor no we have not had problems just to give you located so we are very fortunate to be able to reemploy them the chairman people who got laid off when the auto industry collapsed and who were forced to accept unemployment benefits as soon as you advertised saying you can come back to work they are on your doorstep  thirty people get meaningful employment that is tremendous so here is the good news you want to see a really good news story here is the picture of jobs lost in the united states and this is the bush administration over here in red and as we reached january twenty two thousand and nine we remember that day quite vividly january twenty two thousand and nine seven hundred and eighty thousand jobs were lost in january of two thousand and nine as you can see following on a pattern of the preceding months of the bush administration in terms of this failed economic policy kind of if you don't answer calls  seven hundred and eighty thousand jobs in the month before seven hundred thousand the month before seven hundred and twenty thousand really not a good picture month after month then in february of two thousand and nine  administration arrives with a stimulus package you can't turn around the queen mary overnight but look what happened in the months since then coming up to february we almost have  reverse image of what was happening during the bush administration month after month we see fewer and fewer jobs being lost in our economy for one month there november it actually went positive we actually had job creation  and now we are going down to a point where it is no more than twenty thirty forty thousand jobs that we are losing per month so you can see it is highly likely that this is going to start spiking up with new job creation in our country now i would like to think that this economic plan of the president is working that the stimulus bill is working that the tax breaks are working  that we are turning a corner and that the obama plan is the antidote to the bush plan two different plans about how to run the economy now we didn't cause the accident we are out in the street trying to clean it up some people start to blame us for trying to clean up the accident all that blood in our economy so after a year some people start to basically confuse the people cleaning up after the accident with the people who created it and that is one of our problems we admit that but it is a political problem from a messaging perspective not an economic problem from the perspective of how it is  working and so what we are seeing in the testimony we are hearing today from our witnesses is the incredible success of the stimulus bill and if i could ask you do you think two thousand and ten business is in a capital intensive business you are taking what the recovery act is doing is not only getting those dollars but you are taking a lot of dollars in the private sector and pulling it off the sidelines to come in and buil so venture capitalists other investors they are on the sidelines they are saying oh my goodness look at all that blood in the economy look at all that red but all of a sudden in two thousand and nine with the stimulus bill they are saying maybe it is safe again maybe we can go back into those economic waters and if there is going to be some federal money perhaps and how many new private sector dollars were you able to attract in two thousand and nine mister gaynor seven hundred million your one company that is fantastic and ms wright over here in your battery company how many new jobs would you have created in the united states in two thousand and nine and two thousand and ten without the stimulus program  handful five people maybe now because of the stimulus bill how many do you think you will be creating ms wright we will be hiring engineers and scientists in wisconsin as we have the chairman give us some numbers people want to hear good news people want to have hope that this milwaukee we will continue to hire engineers and scientists to support our technology the chairman wow so without the stimulus bill a handful five with the stimulus bill five hundred and more people who will be working who chairman so that wouldn't be good news for american workers so this is really a fantastic good news story for our country and this energy sector just might be the brightest of all the bright spots in the recovery bill because it gives hope to families that there is going to be a source of new jobs from mister cleaver and the smart grid they are building in the most economically challenged part of kansas city through georgia with  michigan with her new job creation ms patt mcdaniel in ohio with one thousand people out there weatherizing homes in two thousand and nine but many more in two thousand and ten is that correct will be out there and you can't carpenters laborers scientists it is across the entire economic spectrum of our country the people who are benefiting so that is really great news and it helps us to reduce and here is where we will share our  agreement with mister johnson it will reduce the unemployment benefits that we have to pay out of our taxpayers dollars for people in our country and that is one thing we really do hope to achieve mister cleaver do you have anything you would like to  cliff here with red ink for our country people unemployed seven hundred and eighty thousand new people unemployed you come forward one year we are down twenty two thousand people  who newly entered into the unemployment rates what an incredible change more than three quarters of a million people fewer who were unemployed this past month than the last month of the bush administration  and so this energy sector is something that we are not going to walk away from your stories today really give us hope for the future they really make us believe that we have a chance to create a new industrial sector in our country to back out imported oil to not replace made by opec with made in china without ever having a made in the usa energy strategy what you represent is  that alternative the made in the usa strategy we have used tax benefits loan guarantees in the stimulus bill in order to accomplish that goal and your story is tremendous so here is what i will do i will give each one of you one minute to give us the one thought that you want us to remember one minute apiece without using one thousand six hundred and three or the words tax credits try to put it in the simplest possible form for the american people so they can understand what has happened over the last year and what you want to see continue so we will go in reverse order and we will begin with you mister johnson mister johnson first i want to thank the chairman and the members for allowing me to come here today i think in order to create real growth we need to consider freezing all proposed tax increases and costly regulations until unemployment falls at least below seven percent freezing spending and restricting unspent stimulus funds reforming regulations to reduce unnecessary business costs such as  reforming sarbanes oxley reforming the tort system to lower costs and uncertainty facing new businesses remove barriers to domestic energy production in alaska and the outer continental shelf completely repeal the job killing davis bacon act pass pending free trade agreements with south korea colombia and panama and reduce taxes on companies foreign earnings if they bring those earnings home i think those are all sustainable and we need to incorporate in all of the above energy approach working with the individuals here today and i thank you an economy here in the united states rather than abroad many of the countries are very serious about this industry they want to own this industry we want the jobs to stay here in the u s we want to be competitive in the rest of the world programs like the ex im bank and they are wonderful offer facilities which we have also used and others are helping a lot and doe loan guarantees but the stimulus that you started and you are doing is really helping us and it will make a big difference for jobs and i think the security of this country going forward ms wright thank you very much mister markey and committee members because of your actions we have made a commitment to be here in the united states versus being somewhere else and we have also made a commitment to stand up the industry and the entire value chain so we can drive domestic capability and competency we need your help in creating the demands so for short term while the market is sorting itself out we can drive scale drive the economics so we can employ these people and we can employ them sustainably and stand on our own without subsidies and without incentives because that is how we want it to work but i would implore you to help us make sure that we leverage these investments that the u s government and the u s taxpayers have made and the faith they have put in us and make sure we leverage those vehicles and that demand with the components and the systems that were made from those tax dollars here in the united states so that we do have a u s battery cartel not asian battery cartel to say that ohio is very happy to make use of our recovery act funds i already talked about our weatherization we are using our other energy dollars to invest in the growth of those industries for example in our wind supply chain we have six hundred companies who are providing parts to turbines and are also creating jobs we continue to use that money to incent industry and leverage more growth and job creation i really appreciate the opportunity to speak and we would like to have the financial crisis and the financial markets continue to heal could be an extension of the convertible itc so those are my parting thoughts thank you very much the chairman we thank you so much and i know everyone watching c span wants to learn more about a for the united states so we have a goal of fifteen percent twenty percent of all electricity generated from renewables because by definition they are here in america we have to use our own energy resources to do that and we will put the tax breaks we will put the loan guarantees in place so that the private sector will step up and create this engine of growth in our own country creating ultimately hundreds of thousands of new jobs just in this energy sector alone and again meeting the challenge of importing too much oil from opec and trying to avoid a situation where we are importing our batteries our solar and our wind technologies from china we have to avoid it we need a plan america is at its best when it has a plan and the obama administration has begun to put together that plan we see the early results which are fantastic and we are now going to work to expand upon it this year and next we thank you all for testifying here today