That is undoubtedly the question that many would have after reading a Post article on an effort to stop stimulus spending on wind energy because some of the turbines are built in China. The point of stimulus was of course to create jobs in the United States. If it turned out that spending in a particular area was not creating jobs in the United States, then it doesn't fit very well in a stimulus package (although it may still be useful spending). The Post article repeated a few assertions, but it did not provide readers any basis to assess the key questions: how many jobs are being created here? what share of the wind turbines are constructed in the U.S? how large are the savings from buying them from abroad? Since these questions were not addressed, readers of the article would have little basis for assessing the debate over energy spending in the stimulus package.
--Dean Baker
