Tax Credit in Doubt, Wind Power Industry IsWithering
Last month, Gamesa, a major maker of wind turbines, completed the first significant order of its latest innovation: acamper-size box that can capture the energy of slow winds, potentially opening new parts of the country to wind power.
宾夕法尼亚州费尔利斯希尔斯——风机巨头歌美飒(Gamesa)的最新发明是一个野营车大小的盒子，可以聚集慢速风的能量，由此让美国的更多地方有了利用风能的可能。上月，歌美飒完成了这一发明的第一个重要订单。
But by the time the last of the devices, worth more than $1.25 million, was hitched to a rail car, Gamesa had furloughed 92 of the 115 workers who made them.
这种装置每个价值逾125万美元。共有115名工人参与制作。但是，当最后一个装置装上火车的时候，歌美飒已经临时解雇了其中的92名工人。
Similar cuts are happening throughout the American wind sector, which includes hundreds ofmanufacturers, from multinationals that make giant windmills to smaller local manufacturers thatsupply specialty steel or bolts. In recent months, companies have announced almost 1,700 layoffs.
大至生产巨型风车磨坊的跨国企业，小至供应特殊钢材或螺栓的地方制造商，全美风能领域的几百家生产商都在裁员。近几个月，这些公司宣布裁员近1700人。
At its peak in 2008 and 2009, the industry employed about 85,000 people, according to theAmerican Wind Energy Association, the industry’s principal trade group.
首要行业组织美国风能协会(American Wind Energy Association)称，在2008年和2009年的顶峰时期，风能产业雇佣了约8.5万人。
About 10,000 of those jobs have disappeared since, according to the association, as windcompanies have been buffeted by weak demand for electricity, stiff competition from cheapnatural gas and cheaper options from Asian competitors. Chinese manufacturers, who can oftenunderprice goods because of generous state subsidies, have moved into the American market andhave become an issue in the larger trade tensions between the countries. In July, the United StatesCommerce Department imposed tariffs on steel turbine towers from China after finding thatmanufacturers had been selling them for less than the cost of production.
协会称，从那时起，业内就业机会减少了约1万个，原因是电力需求不足，以及来自廉价天然气和亚洲低价产品的激烈竞争，这些因素让美国风能公司腹背受敌。中国生产商享有政府的慷慨补贴，往往可以采取低价销售产品。中国风能生产商已经进入美国市场，成了中美两国广泛贸易摩擦当中的一个部分。7月，美国商务部发现中国生产商在美出售钢铁风塔的价格低于其生产成本，下令对其征收反倾销关税。
And now, on top of the business challenges, the industry is facing a big political problem inWashington: the Dec. 31 expiration of a federal tax credit that makes wind power morecompetitive with other sources of electricity.
而现在，除了经济挑战之外，风能企业还面临着一个来自华盛顿的巨大政治问题：一项联邦税收抵免政策提高了风能与其他电能竞争的能力，该政策将于12月31日到期。
The tax break, which costs about $1 billion a year, has been periodically renewed by Congress withsupport from both parties. This year, however, it has become a wedge issue in the presidentialcontest. President Obama has traveled to wind-heavy swing states like Iowa to tout his support forthe subsidy. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has said he opposes the wind credit, and thathas galvanized Republicans in Congress against it, perhaps dooming any extension or at leastdelaying it until after the election.
这一税收优惠政策的年度成本大约是10亿美元，以前得到了两党的共同支持和国会的定期更新。但是，今年，此政策却成了总统选战当中的一个分歧问题。奥巴马总统去了艾奥瓦等风能丰富的摇摆州，宣传他对这项补贴的支持态度。共和党候选人米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)则宣称反对风能税收抵免政策，使得国会的共和党人也纷纷反对该补贴。这样一来，风能税收抵免政策可能得不到延期，要延期也得等到大选之后。
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