It may have gotten its precious tax credit back, but the Danish windmill maker on whom Portland and Oregon have showered so many subsidies is still cutting back its work force. Now instead of laying people off, it's reducing their hours to 24 a week, and apparently some sort of state unemployment benefit is added to the workers' salaries. If wind energy comes back before the firm goes under, maybe the hours will get ramped back up. In the meantime, the employees chew up some of their unemployment eligibility.

(By the way, Congress has made the tax credit good for deals in which construction is begun by the end of the year, even if the equipment isn't switched on until next year. This change in practice will buy the Vestas types a little more time than we first suspected.)