TAM Touts Properly Structured Incentives – Not Subsidies – to Diversify Energy Portfolio  
 
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.”  Read more.