English touts tax incentive

One Mercer County company found its niche building parts for wind turbines.

By LAURE CIOFFI

VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU

SHARON, Pa. — Advocates of green energy have found a friend in U.S. Congressman Phil English of Erie.

English announced that he will introduce in Congress next week the Generating Renewable Energy and Encouraging Novel Technologies Act of 2007.

English, a ranking member of the House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee, said his plan provides tax incentives for renewable energy.

Those incentives sound good to Joseph Simko, president and general manager at Hodge Foundry in Greenville, Pa.

Simko said his company started making hubs used in turbines used to produce wind energy in 2002. He said his two largest clients are Clipper Wind in California and General Electric’s South Carolina office.

A new growth area

Production of those hubs now make up 40 percent of the foundry’s business. The company has added 100 new employees since it started manufacturing parts for the wind-energy producers.

Simko said the components used for these machines are getting larger, and wind producers are finding it easier to produce them here rather than import them from Europe. This phenomenon has boosted the foundry industry and many others in this country, he said.

“Wind is the next growth area,” he said.

But Simko believes it won’t grow as quickly without federal subsidies like those proposed in English’s legislation.

Simko said higher, short-term tax credits like those proposed by English, rather than smaller, long-term ones, will entice more investors and increase production and use of wind energy.

English said he has no one sustainable energy in mind with the bill.

“We are going to encourage the market to pursue and find the most cost-effective way,” he said.

The bill particulars came out of a series of hearings the House subcommittee conducted on energy tax policy.

A positive outlook

English believes increased use of sustainable energy could mean jobs for Pennsylvania because it promotes the use of clean-coal technology and offers incentives for renewable or eternal sources of energy such as wind, biofuel, ethanol and solar.

“There are a whole host of employers that are finding a niche in new technologies,” English said. “We are a natural area to become a national supplier of products for ethanol.”

English said he has visited Brazil where ethanol-powered cars are mass produced, and he believes it’s possible to do that in this country, too.

The proposed legislation also offers incentives for the use of energy-efficient appliances and more efficient construction of residential and commercial buildings.

Many of English’s proposals involve extending current energy incentives through 2018.

“The net result, we think, is going to be the kind of energy policy that will take us into the next century,” English said.

cioffi@vindy.com