Letter to Hon. Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States - Grassley Calls On Biden To Support Renewable Energy Industry, Keep Clean Jobs In Iowa

Letter

Dear President Biden,
I would like to bring to your attention the impending loss of a significant number of green
manufacturing jobs in Iowa. It has recently been brought to my attention that the TPI Composites
facility located in Newton, Iowa, will be closing its doors on December 31, 2021. TPI Composites is a
leading manufacturer of wind blades across the U.S. and has produced more than 70,000 wind blades
since 2001. In Jasper County, Iowa, TPI Composites serves as the community's largest employer,
employing roughly 700 people.
Newton has been through this before. For more than a century, Newton was a quintessential Iowa
community, home to an iconic American company that provided good manufacturing jobs. Maytag
started building washing machines there in 1893. But in 2007, after Whirlpool acquired Maytag,
Whirlpool announced it was moving operations out of Newton.
In 2017, GE bought a wind turbine company based in Denmark. As a result, GE has not placed an order
with TPI Composites for 2022. Without GE's business, TPI Composites will be forced to shut down
their operation, eliminating hundreds of Iowa jobs.
TPI Composites is not the only business impacted. Dallas, Texas, based company, Arcosa Wind
Towers, announced the layoff of 82 employees as of October 19, 2021. Those employees account for
half the company's wind tower workforce.
On your campaign website, you stated that "If executed strategically, our response to climate change
can create more than 10 million well-paying jobs in the United States that will grow a stronger, more
inclusive middle class enjoyed by communities across the country, not just in cities along the coasts."
Most recently, you have pledged to cut the nation's fossil fuel emissions 50 percent from 2005 levels
by 2030 by designing policies to promote clean energy.
In order to meet such an ambitious goal, it will be vital to retain and grow our existing base of
American clean energy jobs. Yet in Iowa, people who already work in the clean energy sector are
getting pink slips. Iowa leads the country in wind energy production with over 9,000 jobs and
nearly 60% of our energy coming from wind. But for now, many Iowa families are distressed with
news that they will not have a job come the New Year.
Our state is proud to rank second behind Texas in terms of production and first in wind power
share. As the "father" of the Wind Energy Incentives Act of 1993, I sought to give this renewable
energy source the ability to compete with traditional, finite sources. This past year, the wind
industry supported over 116,000 U.S. jobs. In 1993, I did not imagine the degree of success that we
see today.
Last week, Secretary Deb Haaland said that her agency will begin to identify, demarcate and hope
to eventually lease federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine and off the coasts of the
Mid-Atlantic States, North Carolina and South Carolina, California and Oregon, to wind power
developers by 2025. This should help grow the wind industry resulting in job increases for
manufacturers.
Wind energy will be vital to deliver on your promises of creating clean energy jobs and lowering
our greenhouse gas emissions. However, we both know that the only way we can accomplish this is
with the hard work, grit, and determination that comes from the American people, like those in
Newton, Iowa.
With that in mind, I ask that you keep Newton and other American communities in mind when you
speak to leaders in the business, environmental, and political communities about renewable energy
potential. Newton is home to a talented workforce, and hundreds of employees that in January will
be without work.
Policies that allow wind to continue to grow and expand its share of electrical generation are
helpful, but will not reap benefits in terms of jobs if the overall labor and business climate pushes
manufacturing offshore. I ask you to review the situation in Newton and do everything in your
power to ensure that workers in Iowa and America are helped and not hurt by economic and
environmental policies going forward.
I welcome you to use my office as a resource going forward for information about the clean energy
research, innovation, and products produced in the middle of the country.
Thank you for your consideration of this request. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,

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