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In 2001, Toomey voted to allow drilling for oil and natural gas in the Great Lakes. But that’s not all -- just this past June – despite the unfolding catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico -- he reiterated his support for drilling in Lake Erie. And his zeal for drilling doesn’t just stop at the Great Lakes, he also supports drilling in protected areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Toomey has parroted Big Oil’s misinformation and lies about climate legislation and other clean energy policies for years. From his time in Congress to his stint running the ultra-conservative Club for Growth, Toomey has consistently sided with Big Oil and other dirty polluters. In fact, over his career, Toomey has received more than $294,000 from energy interests, including $123,800 from the Oil and Gas industry. His lifetime LCV score is an abysmal 11 percent.
Make no mistake: If Toomey wins in November, he will do Big Oil’s bidding in the Senate and he’ll lead the charge against sound environmental policies and EPA’s ability to reduce global warming pollution from the nation’s biggest emitters.
We need more pro-environment allies in the Senate next year, not rubber stamps for corporate polluters. If we ever want to get anything done to help our planet in 2011 and beyond, we can’t let them win in November.
That’s why this election is so important. Rep. Joe Sestak, who is running against Toomey for Pennsylvania Senate, is an environmental champion who voted for the American Clean Energy and Security Act last year – a bill that would have helped to build an American clean energy economy, reduce harmful carbon pollution and curb our dangerous dependence on oil. During his two terms in Congress, Sestak has earned an outstanding 96% on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard.
We need more friends like Rep. Joe Sestak in the Senate, not more of Big Oil’s cronies. So please, take a moment to watch LCV’s video and then share the video with three friends who vote in Pennsylvania.
Thank you for all you do to protect the planet.
Sincerely,
Gene Karpinski
President
League of Conservation Voters
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Wind turbine maker plants firm foot in state
Photos
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Sanding a windmill blade Heidi Murrin/Tribune-Review
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Measurements taken of a windmill blade Heidi Murrin/Tribune-Review
About the writer
Rick Stouffer is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff writer and can be reached at 412-320-7853 or via e-mail.Three years ago, the Johnstown, Cambria County, resident, looking for a new challenge, went from making loans to making windmill blades.
"My boss gives me what I need to do for the day, then lets me do it," said Stupi, 56. "It's less money than I was making, but also a lot less pressure -- it's super."
Stupi is one of 300 employees at a windmill blade factory operated in Ebensburg by Spain's Gamesa SA, one of the world's five largest windmill turbine makers. Its primary competitors include GE Energy, Denmark's Vestas, Germany's Siemens and India's Suzlon.
Three years ago, Gamesa opened this 142,000-square-foot plant in Cambria County as part of its entry to both Pennsylvania and the United States.
The move gave the company a leg up on competitors in a wind-energy market that experts predicted a decade ago would take off.
President Obama's backing for alternative energy projects and billions of dollars of incentives in a stimulus package passed by Congress has positioned Gamesa and others to capitalize on expanding demand for electricity generated by the wind.
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is considering legislation that would require the country to generate 11 to 15 percent of its power from renewable resources, including wind and solar, by 2021. The House is weighing similar legislation. And Obama has called for an even more ambitious goal: 25 percent by 2025. A federal standard, combined with grants and tax credits in the government stimulus package, could help draw billions of dollars in investments and spur plans for new wind farms nationwide.
"Wind companies see a strong market for renewable energy in the U.S., and we agree," said Robert LaCount, head of the Climate Change and Clean Energy Group for IHS CERA, Washington.
"Of the 14 original equipment manufacturers in the North American market today, nearly everyone followed Gamesa," said Matt Kaplan, senior analyst in Emerging Energy Research's North America Wind Energy Group, in Cambridge, Mass. "Gamesa was ahead of the curve."
"It was a smart move on Gamesa's part to come to the U.S., replicating what it learned to do well in Europe, and they are in a very good position," said Gerry Susman, director of Penn State University's Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.
Gamesa's Ebensburg plant is expanding to handle larger blades as the wind-energy industry moves toward larger, more powerful windmills.
It is consolidating all blade work from another blade-making plant in Fairless Hills, Bucks County. That plant will concentrate on making nacelles, which house the turbines turned by the wind-driven giant blades to generate electricity. Gamesa's North American headquarters and a sales office are in Philadelphia.
Ebensburg Plant Manager Antonio Morente Manero projects his workers this year will produce about 400 blades, down from more than 500 in 2008, because of the production changes.
Last year was the best year ever for the wind industry in America.
More than 8,500 megawatts of wind power were brought online, increasing the nation's total wind-generating capacity to 25,300 megawatts, overtaking Germany for the top position worldwide. That's enough electricity to handle the needs of nearly seven million households. Even so, that's still a tiny part of the energy grid -- just over 1 percent of the U.S. electricity supply.
An estimated $17 billion was invested in wind power in 2008 alone, with IHS CERA projecting 2009 projects will add another 5,000 megawatts to 8,500 megawatts to the wind power capacity total.
Michael Peck, Gamesa's director of media, institutional and labor relations, said a company task force looked initially at 27 states, and in 2004 selected Pennsylvania for its operations.
"We received bipartisan support to come to Pennsylvania, and the state had just passed a standard calling for 18 percent of the state's energy to come from renewables by 2020," he said.
The state provided Gamesa with $20 million in grants and loans to build its manufacturing plants in Ebensburg and in Fairless Hills outside Philadelphia. The Ebensburg plant is tax-exempt until 2011, the Fairless Hills facility pays no state and local taxes through 2019.
Gamesa was attracted by Western Pennsylvania's fabled work force. "Workers in Ebensburg, an extension of the Pittsburgh area, have manufacturing in their blood," Peck said.
"It's been a very positive experience having Gamesa here," said P.J. Stevens, president of the Cambria County commissioners. "It brought family-sustaining jobs here, which helps grow our tax base. That's the kind of job creation we want."
Wages at the Gamesa plant, excluding benefits, range between $12.73 and $18.39 an hour.
"The biggest thing for us having Gamesa is that it establishes us in the renewables community," said Linda Thomson, president of Johnstown Area Regional Industries, a nonprofit economic development agency that promotes Cambria and Somerset counties.
Standing on the Ebensburg plant's roof, 100 of the 150-foot, six-ton blades lie end-to-end, looking like wind-made ridges in white sand. Each blade, three blades per windmill, takes 22 hours to manufacture, said manufacturing manager Joe Satkovich.
Satkovich is another worker who found a home with Gamesa. A 32-year veteran with Vanity Fair Intimates, he lost his job as operations superintendent when the company decided to close its Richland, Cambria County, factory and move operations to Alabama.
Satkovich joined Gamesa in August 2005, spent 4 1/2 months in Spain learning the Gamesa way, then returned to Ebensburg to direct operations on the shop floor.
"We make two blades a day, and can work on 10 blades at one time, on three shifts," Satkovich said. The blades are made of fiberglass impregnated with resins, plus carbon fiber that adds strength without weight.
Blades have to be nearly perfect when they leave the Gamesa factory. Ultrasound equipment is used to ensure each blade is solid throughout, and the three blades that are mounted on top of a windmill tower have to weigh within 11 pounds of each other to prevent wobbling, improper wear and expensive fixes.
Ongoing retooling at the Ebensburg plant is expected to be completed by year's end.
"We have to prepare for the future in the wind industry, and we're getting ready for new products in the Gamesa portfolio," Manero said.
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