biofuelplant
Jobs will be a priority for Jay Inslee as Governor.  Actually, Jay has already been creating Anacortes jobs and boosting employment elsewhere in the State of Washington through the Stimulus Act of 2009.  Funding from the Stimulus Act gave a $2 million grant to AltAir Fuels to build a biofuels production plant in Anacortes.

Anacortes Jobs from AltAir Biofuels Project

The AltAir and Rentech biofuels project in Anacortes will stimulate the creation of 477 temporary and permanent jobs in Skagit and King County.  These include:

  • 350 engineering and construction jobs,
  • 20 permanent jobs in operations and maintenance,
  • 107 permanent and seasonal agricultural jobs.

We can expect many more jobs in Anacortes to be indirectly created.   These workers will need places to live, which will drive job creation in the home building sector of the economy.  They will also need places to shop and recreate, which will create more jobs locally in Skagit and King County.  (Update:  Additional coverage of the AltAir biofuel facility can be found at the Olympia Report and there is more information on biofuels at xconomy.com).

 Jobs Creation in the State of Washington

Tens of thousands of jobs were also created in the State of Washington as a whole.  In addition to jobs in Anacortes, the Stimulus Bill helped boost Washington Employment, such as in Liberty Lake.  Specifically, the stimulus bill helped put Washington and the rest of the county to work at

  • Fixing thousands of miles of roads
  • Constructing wireless and broadband infrastructure
  • Building flood prevention projects
  • Cleaning up toxic waste materials sites

In the state of Washington, the Stimulus Bill also helped employ thousands of

  • Firefighters
  • Teachers
  • Police officers
  • And other professionals

Jobs Creation Nation-Wide

The Stimulus bill created over 1.5 million jobs nation-wide (Federal Reserve, 2010).  “One year after the stimulus, several independent macroeconomic firms, including Moody’s and IHS Global Insight, estimated that the stimulus saved or created 1.6 to 1.8 million jobs nation-wide and forecast that a total 2.5 million jobs would be saved or created by the time the stimulus is completed

Other economists have arrived at even more positive conclusions about the Act’s effects on jobs. Economist Dan Wilson of the Federal Reserve estimates that “ARRA spending created or saved about 2 million jobs in its first year and over 3 million by March 2011.”

Also, you should see candidate Jay Inslee’s nicely thought out strategy to create a “Working Washington” and the web page Recovery.wa.gov for more information.

 

Related posts:

  1. Building a Working Liberty Lake

Filed under: Jobs Created in the State of Washington

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