From an article by Nathaniel Shuda in the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune:
More than two years after officials announced plans to build a wind-turbine blade manufacturing plant, the future of the Wisconsin Rapids-based company’s project remains unclear.
Energy Composites Corp.’s plan to bring more than 600 jobs to the south Wood County area is on hold indefinitely while the city continues to negotiate a deal to buy back the land it sold to the company for the project, city and company officials said.
“We have nothing in final form,” Mayor Mary Jo Carson said Friday. “We’ll probably push it through sometime next week.”
Company founder and President Jamie Mancl said a sharp decline in the wind-industry market and a lack of federal energy policy were the main reasons he was unable to secure investors for the 535,000-square-foot plant.
“We still are pursuing options, of course, but given the economic and political environment, especially here in the state of Wisconsin but (also) across the U.S., it has been very challenging at best,” Mancl said Friday.