Iowa Power Fund job creation overstated, Culver challenger says

A Republican gubernatorial hopeful says Gov. Chet Culver has – in a roundabout way – come clean on the job-creation benefits of the state's $50 million Power Fund investments.

Rep. Chris Rants of Sioux City said the Democratic governor acknowledged overestimating how many jobs the fund has created when he created the Iowa Green Jobs Task Force this week.

“If the Iowa Power Fund was as successful as Culver claimed it to be, why do we need a new task force on green jobs?” asked Rants, who is seeking the 2010 GOP nomination for governor. “The answer is simple: Chet Culver has greatly exaggerated the number of new jobs created by the Power Fund.”

It's Rants who needs to “come clean,” Culver spokesman Phil Roeder responded, accusing Rants of misrepresenting what the governor said and trying “to hide his own record of opposing the efforts that helped make Iowa a worldwide leader in renewable energy.”

Rants “is simply misrepresenting the truth,” Roeder said.

“Culver cited a state study showing more than 8,700 green industry jobs in Iowa, and that the Power Fund is contributing to the growth of green jobs in our state,” Roeder said.

Since then, Culver has been quoted as saying green jobs have grown by more than 3,500 since 2003 to more than 8,700.

In announcing the creation of the task force to lead efforts to create green jobs, Culver referred to “thousands” of jobs created by the state's efforts in the biofuels and wind energy industries.

“Quite honestly, I'm not sure that Culver even knows how many jobs the Power Fund actually created,” Rants said.

The governor needs to concentrate on getting the 100,000 unemployed Iowans back to work, rather than putting together another task force that will just prolong the process, Rants said.

“There is enough bureaucracy in government - why does Culver feel the need to keep adding more?” Rants said. “If the power fund is not creating the jobs it promised, Culver should disband it. It is time to look for real solutions to Iowa's economic problems.”

However, Roeder said it is Rants who “continues to say ‘no' to building Iowa's renewable energy industry and efforts to create more jobs.”

“It's hard to comprehend why Christopher Rants would attack an initiative that involves existing state agencies working with our colleges and universities to create good, green-collar jobs for Iowans,” he said.