Contact: Gretchen Fox, 512-694-4326
 
Austin, TX - The Texas Association of Manufacturers (TAM) insisted that state leaders focus on existing jobs when considering subsidies to support costly renewable energy.  A new study on renewable energy, released by The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, did not discuss job loss associated with dramatic increases in the cost of electricity which would result from mandated renewable subsidies.  
 
“Under the study’s ‘best case scenario,’ the electric rate increase would cost a large manufacturing facility between $5 and $10 million every year,” said Luke Bellsnyder, executive director of TAM.“The financial impact on manufacturing employers would be dramatic.  These are costs that are siphoned out of payroll, benefits, research and development, equipment upgrades that improve energy efficiency.You can’t raise prices without losing somewhere else.Sadly, some of that loss is going to be jobs.”  
 
TAM has consistently supported properly structured incentives – vs. mandates and subsidies – to expand renewable energy use and bringing renewable jobs to Texas.“While diversifying our energy portfolio is important, policymakers must be innovative in creating incentives to encourage proven investments - without mandates or subsidies shouldered by existing Texas manufacturers and employers.”  
 
Bellsnyder noted that electricity is already one of the highest costs for manufacturers that provide high quality, high-paying jobs to more than 810,000 Texans.  Manufacturing workers in Texas earn 41 percent more than the rest of the workforce.  Research (1) has shown that jobs associated with renewable energy markets are fewer in number, lower paying, and shorter term, according to Bellsnyder.  
 
“With all due respect to the study’s author, with a marginal economy enduring unemployment rates above 8 percent, our state leaders should be taking every step possible to protect the high quality jobs we have,” he said.   
 
(1) Study of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources, Gabriel Calzada Álvarez PhD, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, March 2009
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The Texas Association of Manufacturers (TAM) represents over 400 large and small companies from every manufacturing sector, employing approximately 810,000 Texans with an average compensation of $79,500 (41 percent more than the rest of the Texas workforce).Texas manufacturers contribute $158.8 billion to the Texas economy in 2009 and are responsible for almost two-thirds of all private sector research and development spending.