WEST FARGO (AP) - Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D, visited the DMI Industries manufacturing plant here to announce a proposal to extend the production tax credit for wind and other renewable energy projects until 2014.

Before adjourning last month, Congress extended the tax credit through Dec. 31, 2008. The tax credit provides 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity generated during the first 10 years of a wind turbine's operation.

Pomeroy said the tax credit has expired three times since 1999, causing "tremendous disruptions" to the industry.

The Congressional Budget Office has yet to estimate the cost of a five-year extension of the tax credit, Pomeroy said. He would like to see it made permanent.

Lars Moller, president of DMI Industries, which makes wind tower equipment, said the company's work force has expanded from about 75 in 2004 to nearly 500.

A five-year extension would "allow us to think a little bit more long term than the one- or two-year extensions that we've seen in past years," Moller said.

Blake Seas, general manager of LM Glasfiber Inc. in Grand Forks, which makes wind turbine blades, said LM Glasfiber stabilized with about 320 workers last summer and is now up to 720, with most of the additional workers hired in the last three months.