U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development approved $400,000 million for Hudson Valley Community College (HVCC) to expand its renewable energy training program in the FY11 Appropriations Bill. This project is estimated to help create more than 100 jobs. Senators Schumer and Gillibrand aggressively lobbied members of the Appropriations Committee to include funding for the project in this year’s spending bill.
“This funding will ultimately provide HVCC students with the tools to find good jobs in a growing field,” Schumer said. “The Capital Region has long been a leader in clean energy technology development, and this emerging industry can be a boon for this region’s economy and can make our state a leader in new technologies. Hudson Valley is becoming a model community college for training tomorrow’s renewable energy workforce.”
“Developing new, clean, homegrown sources of energy is a vital part of our economic recovery,” Senator Gillibrand said. “This great investment for the Capital Region will help train our local workforce to develop and manufacture the equipment to make wind energy accessible and affordable – helping to cut emissions, improve our environment, lower our energy bills, and create good paying jobs right here at home. This program makes good sense for our finances and our environment.”
Through this investment, Hudson Valley Community College would initiate a large-scale wind technician training program at the college, expanding its renewable energy training program for wind technicians and trainers over the next three years, helping more individuals enter this dynamic, local industry. These federal funds would help purchase large-scale wind equipment for hands-on instruction and safety education.
Wind power is a cost-effective renewable resource, which provides reliable energy, diversifies the U.S. energy supply, and decreases consumption of fossil fuels, decreasing reliance on foreign energy sources, and reducing pollutants in the air we breathe and the water we drink.
The legislation will head to full committee, and then to the floor for a full vote before the Senate. The bill will then proceed to the House-Senate Conference Committee, before final passage in both chambers, and sent to the President to become law.