Green Jobs That Can Be Outsourced

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/08/11/green-jobs-that-can-be-outsourced/

August 11, 2010

By Joseph B. White

President Obama promotes federal subsidies for the renewable energy industry, saying they will create “the jobs of the future, jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.”

But some green jobs can be outsourced, as Michigan solar cell maker Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., demonstrated Tuesday.

ECD said it will move final assembly of some of its existing solar cell products out of an Auburn Hills, Mich. plant to Tijuana, Mexico. The decision means 140 of ECD’s Michigan workers will be out of a job this fall, the company says. About 750 ECD jobs will remain in Michigan, it says.

ECD’s decision to shift what it described as low-skill assembly jobs to Mexico is part of a broader effort to cut costs and compete with solar cell makers which have manufacturing operations in China, Malaysia and other lower-wage nations, says Martha Duggan, ECD’s head of government and regulatory affairs.

ECD says it’s pushing ahead with plans to use the $13 million stimulus tax credit it received to upgrade other parts of its Auburn Hills operations to produce a new, more efficient line of solar cells. When ECD announced the Department of Energy award, it said the $42 million project would create about 600 additional jobs in Michigan.

Duggan says the company still expects to create those 600 jobs. But that could take longer than originally planned. Uncertainty in the global solar cell market has led the company to stretch the investments into 2012, she says.

The Energy Department said ECD’s announcement isn’t related to the investment that was declared eligible for a stimulus tax break.