President Obama’s campaign launched a new web video Friday championing what they call the President’s “all-of-the-above” energy policy by interviewing employees of Heron Wind Manufacturing, a producer of wind turbines in Michigan.
The two-and-a-half minute ad, titled “Our jobs come from the wind,” discusses how federal loans and alternative energy tax breaks allowed Heron to thrive despite high start-up costs and a sputtering national economy.
“The policies that President Obama has put forward have been a great benefit to a small business like mine,” Steve Smiley, president and CEO of Heron, said in the ad.
“Heron Wind recently received a loan that was supported by President Obama. The loan we got is directly gonna help us produce two to three [wind] turbines.”
Obama’s campaign accompanied the release of the video with a press release attacking Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his opposition to incentivizing those in the alternative energy business.
“Mitt Romney would raise taxes on wind producers and protect tax breaks for oil companies and for those that ship jobs overseas – which would put American jobs at risk and jeopardize our energy strategy,” the press release said.
State Romney spokesperson Kate Meriwether said that the President has had enough time and resources to create green energy jobs, but has failed to keep his promise and actually cost the wind industry 10,000 jobs – all while producing only 1 percent of the country’s energy.
“The President may believe that his economic plan ‘worked’…but the facts don’t back that up. Mitt Romney believes it is a time for a new approach to ensure our nation’s energy independence,” she said.
“He will allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits. Wind energy will thrive wherever it is economically competitive, and wherever private sector competitors with far more experience than the President believe the investment will produce results.”
Undoubtedly, the latest push by Obama’s campaign is an attempt to move the national conversation away from Solyndra, a California-based producer of solar panels.
Solyndra received a $527 million loan from the federal government in September 2009 – the first loan guarantee under Obama. In September 2011, however, the company filed for bankruptcy, and has since been a political thorn in the side of the President, with critics, including Romney, accusing him of mismanaging taxpayer funds.