Manufacturing company Katana Summit is looking for a buyer for its operations in the two states. If that doesn’t happen by Nov. 1, the plants will shut down.
credit:
Courtney Flatt
RICHLAND, Wash. – A wind tower manufacturer says it’s closing plants in Washington and Nebraska.
Manufacturing company Katana Summit is looking for a buyer for its operations in the two states. If that doesn’t happen by Nov. 1, the plants will shut down.
Wind producers receive a tax credit based on the energy they produce. This Production Tax Credit, or PTC, expires in December unless Congress extends it.
Katana Summit CEO Kevin Strudthoff says wind producers won’t buy wind turbine parts unless they can count on future tax credits. Strudthoff says that’s why Katana Summit has not received any orders for next year.
“The industry has been through this before, where we face the expiration of the PTC, and the industry just falls off a cliff. And for whatever reason, our folks in Washington don’t seem to get what that means to jobs out in the field,” Strudthoff says.
Katana Summit employs 79 workers in Ephrata, Wash., and 214 in Columbus, Neb.
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