The New York Times’ Tom Zeller Jr. and Keith Bradsher throw out an interesting stat, courtesy of American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop: of the $1.05 billion in “green” stimulus spending the Dept. of Energy has rewarded since September, 84 percent has gone to foreign companies building renewable energy projects in the United States. This is pretty amazing since the whole point of the stimulus bill was to create jobs in America.

Politicians seem to have belatedly caught on: New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer wrote a letter to Energy Sec. Steven Chu asking him to reject a proposed $450 million wind farm in Texas, unless the manufacturing jobs to make the wind turbines are American jobs. A Chinese company is now slated to manufacture the turbines.

On the other hand…such a project would create American construction jobs. And, in the long-term, it would give the U.S. better access to Chinese renewable energy technology and a chance to do a large-scale renewable energy project that contributes in no way to global warming. So this collaboration seems like a good use of Energy Dept. money. But Schumer is right to question whether it is a good use of Energy Dept. stimulus money — Are there projects that might create more immediate manufacturing jobs?

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