A quite fascinating read in the New York Times that is at the cross section of much of what is broken in America.  We've often states this focus on green energy as a "new dawn of jobs" is a bit over the top, considering Germany is about 15 years ahead of the US in "green tech" and Japan about a decade.  Even China is now revving ahead of us.... so how are we going to have a new wave of work in the US based on green energy again?   (Aug 25, 2009: UK Telegraph - China Powers Ahead as it Seizes the Green Energy Crown from Europe) (Aug 28, 2008: China to Subsidize Wind Turbines) (Jun 19, 2009: Reuters - Incentives Add Shine to China's Solar Drive)  As you can see, China for example (and Germany... and Japan) have heavily subsidized long range plans to go green, pretty much impossible to compete with on a global footprint if the home country refuses any similar form of subsidization.

However we are not allowed to have an industrial policy in the US because to do so would make us "socialist" - like those darn Germans.  Instead we'll let much of our manufacturing rinse away to cheaper locales because well, that's just how it works.  Except in Germany apparently.  The statistic that caught my eye in this story was due to this lack of manufacturing capability 84% of the money thus far allocated for "green" is going to foreign companies. 

The rest of the piece deals with a company we actually had a position in during pats of 2007 and 2008, A-Power Energy (APWR) and how they have won a contract to do wind energy ... in Texas.

• News last week of the first major influx of Chinese capital and wind turbine manufacturing expertise into the renewable energy market in the United States — a 600-megawatt wind farm planned for the plains of west Texas — had many readers of the Green Inc. blog in a state of agitation.
• The details of the deal known so far: Contingent on financing from Chinese commercial banks — and no small measure of funding from the U.S. economic stimulus package — A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Nasdaq-listed company based in the Chinese industrial city of Shenyang, would provide 240 of its 2.5-megawatt wind turbines for a 36,000-acre, or 14,600-hectare, utility-scale wind farm in west Texas to be operated by Cielo Wind Power, a developer based in Austin.
• The total cost of the project, which was brokered in part by the U.S.