Otter Tail sells wind tower business; jobs remain uncertain

pioneer press ^ | 9-7-12 | Leslie Brooks Suzukamo

[TurboZamboni]

Otter Tail Corp. said Thursday that it has sold its wind tower manufacturing business, DMI Industries, to Trinity Industries of Dallas for $20 million.

The Fergus Falls, Minn.-based conglomerate, which also owns Otter Tail Power Co., said it closed on the sale of the property, plant and equipment at its Fort Erie, Ontario, plant on Thursday, Sept.6.

The sale of its DMI plants in West Fargo, N.D. and Tulsa, Okla., plants will close in November and December respectively.

Trinity Industries makes wind towers, rail cars and other products that require heavy metal fabrication, Otter Tail spokesman Michael Olsen said.

Otter Tail had announced Aug. 6 that it was selling its wind tower business. The absence of an extension of an expiring federal production tax credit for wind power projects, a lack of a predictable national energy policy and low natural gas prices that gave utilities a cheaper alternative to wind made the business untenable, the company said then.

[TurboZamboni]

Peter Schweizer details the startling extent of the cronyism that has pervaded President Obama’s “green jobs” push. According to Schweizer, 4 out of every 5 renewable energy companies backed by the Energy Department was “run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers.” Those companies’ “political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy,” Schweizer explains. “It brought them returns many times over.”

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/11/14/report-80-of-doe-green-energy-loans-went-to-obama-backers/

[PatriotCJC]

Otter Tail County BUMP! I will be there on vacation fishing on Star Lake !!!

[DTogo]

The "green jobs" cronyism of Obama was mostly in the form of ill-advised DOE loan/guarantees.

This story pertains to the US wind energy market slowdown due to the Production Tax Credit expiring in Dec '12. Obama has not touted this credit's extension much because of it's nature: energy production. Wind farms with optimal energy output and investment returns are chosen by the private sector.

Obama has little control in directing that investment to his cronies, so no horse in that race while tens of thousands of wind-related jobs hang in the balance.