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AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, file
If your administration tauts one industry over another don’t you think it would be wise to consult another administration that has been there and done that? Maybe ask someone who has given that industry a real try over a few years, one who has figures to support their claims?
Spain has been involved in the “green jobs” market since 1997, and recently wrote a report on what the “green world of jobs” actually means. Spain had adopted basically the same approach to the green industry as the EU has, so the figures have some serious merit. The Obama Administration has promoted a fledgling business to help pull America out of its economic problems, but the question arises, “at what cost?”
Spain has calculated at lot of figures that give an historical picture to what our future could be, if the trend continues. Spain explains that those figures account for 9 jobs being lost for every 4 being created. In plain terms this translation is that for every job in the green industry that is created, there will be 2.2 lost!
Although an exact comparison isn’t really possible, to err on the side of optimism would work out to 6.6 million to 11 million jobs will be lost to create what the Obama Administration claims to be a creation of 3 to 5 million “green jobs.”
They even gave a breakdown on what type of green jobs cost them the most jobs: Each “green” megawatt installed destroys 5.28 jobs on average elsewhere in the economy: 8.99 by photovoltaics, 4.27 by wind energy, 5.05 by mini-hydro.
Another devastating side effect was the enormous debt that Spain went into to subsidize the transformation, somewhat similar to the program the Obama Administration has reported to desire.
As Spain pushed the renewable energy that their policies had forced, local energy producers were forced to accept the higher rates of electric generation, thus drastically increasing the electric costs to the end user.
According to a Penn State University study, replacing two-thirds of U.S. coal-based energy with higher-priced energy such as renewables, if possible, would cost almost 3 million jobs, and perhaps more than 4 million (Rose, A.Z., and Wei, D., “The Economic Impact of Coal Utilization and Displacement in the Continental United States, 2015,”
Pennsylvania State University, July 2006)
Other issues brought to light are disadvantages of taking an employee from one sector to work in the green industry. Once he is gone from his original career, the market officially loses his position. In laymen terms this means there will be nobody to do his previous job, creating a void in his previous industry.
One has to wonder if a demand to have a certain percentage of renewable resources in place in the U.S. will have an undesired effect on the cost of that very production, and therefore punish the poor in an indirect taxing of the very 95% of the workers who were supposed to get a tax break. There is nothing wrong with renewable resources, but putting limits and demands only insures higher electric costs.
The history is there, and we can at least thank Spain for bringing these figures to light, now let’s see how Obama uses them.
Comments
I read your suggested link, and the qoute was this,"Jobs creation is estimated at two per megawatt on the manufacturing side and up to 10 jobs per megawatt when considering the entire food chain, from manufacturing to installation".
It reads ESTIMATED, Spain has the history, not the estimations, it includes government's involvement, and the subsidized effort they put forth, much in the way Obama wants to do.
Your source is based on ideas, no government involvement, and a rosey world......take off your rose colored glasses and open your closed mind.
Great post about green jobs... However I don't know how soon we could take advantage of it... By the way so far to continue my job search I am using EnergyCrossing.com and OilAndGasCrossing.com which eventually have good # of jobs, that I could apply to..
ibcnu2day, solar is fine but what fuel will be used for transportation?
Gov O'Malley hypes solar and his green job programs but TOTALLY FAILED to save a FEW HUNDRED of those green job in Frederick's BP SOLAR plant closing. He made ZERO effort to save those jobs. ZERO.
He is all talk and ZERO action. Except when it comes to RAISING taxes and increasing our energy costs!
greenerthengore, love the name.
I bet millions of people are greener than Al Gore the Hypocrite!
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