School will soon be back in session, and the shelves are stocked. As a self-proclaimed “pen geek,” this sparks a lot of fond memories.
It’s a lot different now, though. Parents have to follow the supply list to the letter. Every year teachers mandate a new exotic, impossible-to-find item, sending parents on a grail quest to every retailer in a 100-mile radius.
In other words, when August rolls around, the rush is on. Families embark on an all-out sprint to get everything on the list by a hard-and-fast deadline — the first day of school. It’s no easy task, and it’s compounded by rising supply costs, class fees, club dues, and a new wardrobe.
To ease this burden, a handful of states have sales tax holidays, during which back-to-school items are exempt from state and local sales tax. While these holidays do help families stretch their dollars a bit further, they’re just a temporary reprieve. These expenses don’t go away on the second day of school.
We can relate to that situation in the wind energy industry. On what has seemingly become an annual basis, we rush to complete projects prior to our own hard-and-fast deadline. And every once in a while, the federal government steps in and grants us a temporary incentive.
While we’re genuinely grateful, it’s often difficult to mask our frustration and discouragement. These arise not because we’re spoiled children looking for a hand-out, but because we’ve repeatedly exhibited our gratitude by taking full advantage of the opportunity to build a clean, sustainable energy future for our nation.
Parents willingly sacrifice their time and spare no effort or expense to ensure their children are afforded every chance at a bright, successful future. But they don’t need more items added to the supply list.
As parents raising this industry into its bright, successful future, let’s continue to push for a long-term federal incentive policy for wind energy. Anything less is just sending us rushing for that new item on the list.
At the beginning of 2014, Wind Systems launched a re-design of its content and format, from which we’ve had nothing but positive response. The only thing we didn’t change was our logo. Honestly, we didn’t want it be too much of a shock to our loyal readers.
With Wind Systems now in its sixth year, we’ve decided to make the jump to a bolder, simpler, more sophisticated logo. It’s kind of like our first day back to school — only we’re making the jump from eighth grade to high school.
Thanks for reading!
