"Green jobs" were sold to the American people not just as a way to improve the environment, but as a central pillar of the Obama Administration's response to our nation's growing unemployment epidemic. Two and a half years and nearly $100 billion later, this failed experiment has proven to do little more than misdirect investment and expand the deficit.
Despite the reality that "green" initiatives have done little to help and have likely hurt our economic growth prospects, the administration has doubled-down on the fundamentally flawed assertion that subsidizing green energy while suppressing traditional energy is how we will "win the future."
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently testified before the House Oversight Committee that, "green industries" will allow "individuals to get good jobs, and to keep and advance in those jobs over the long term" and are a key part of the economic recovery.
Evidently, Secretary Solis and the president have ignored the findings from a new report released by the Labor Department's Inspector General revealing some sobering realities that cannot be ignored.
Equipped with $500 million to fund "green" worker training for 124,893 people, the IG found they have only trained 52,762 (42 percent of the target), and only 8,035 actually got jobs (10 percent of the target). Of those, only 1,033 (two percent of the target) have kept their jobs longer than 6 months.
The Inspector General reported that "grantees have expressed concerns that jobs have not materialized and that job placements have been fewer than expected...."
Elsewhere at the Department of Labor, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is now incorporating what can only be described as an artificial or manufactured measurement to "count" green jobs.
As one of the most well-respected data collection agencies in the world, the BLS's figures are the gold standard for understanding employment and inflation. Using BLS as a means to lend legitimacy to this politically favored sector of the labor force is an abuse that cannot go unchecked.
Because the concept of a "green job" is vague, not easily defined, and often arbitrary, counting these jobs is impossible to do accurately and the results are vulnerable to manipulation and misrepresentation.
The BLS has determined that jobs are "green" if they are (1) "jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources" or (2) "jobs in which workers' duties involve making their establishment's production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources."
While this definition may appear reasonable on the surface, in reality, there exists little relationship between jobs classified as "green" and actual environmental benefit.
For instance, the BLS criteria stipulates that jobs which "[i]ncrease public awareness of environmental issues" are green jobs as are those who "[e]nforce environmental regulations". Under this creative accounting gimmick, college professors that teach classes related to ecology, reporters that write about environmental issues, policy experts at think tanks discussing environmental policy, lobbyists advocating for environmental regulations, bureaucrats who work on environmental issues, all seemingly meet this criteria and will have jobs considered to be and counted as "green."
Even mass transit jobs or jobs supporting that industry are counted -- so if your job is to pump gasoline into busses (even if those buses ride around empty for much of the day) or even if you're driving a bus, your job is now considered "green."
Clearly, these aren't jobs "created," as the administration's rhetoric would have you believe, but rather jobs that have been cleverly "re-labeled" as green.
The creation of a "green jobs" metric in BLS's data is an attempt to codify a political construct and give it legitimacy in an effort to deceive the American people. Conveniently timed to be released in the second half of 2012, proponents will point to these new, yet meaningless, statistics to claim the green economy is more viable than it actually is. The administration is using the BLS to advance a political narrative at the risk of jeopardizing and undermining the credibility of the BLS.
Rather being a boon to growth, green collar jobs are a green noose around the economy's neck, suffocating investment and hindering expansion. At a time when job creation is needed more than ever, wealth redistribution masked as radical environmentalism is nothing more than another in the series of baseless get-jobs-quick schemes that have come to typify Obamanomics.
A good place to start would be recouping all remaining funds from the DoL's failed training experiment before it's too late. Based on the IG report, recouping those funds would offset nearly 60 percent of the taxpayers' loss on Solyndra. This would be merely a down payment on the $100 billion spent on the ill-fated green energy experiment, but it's a good first step.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), is the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and represents the 49th Congressional District of California.
Benjamin Healey and Nancy Pfund: Subsidies for Renewable Energy: American as Apple Pie
http://www.transcanada.com/keystone.html
Although there’s some disagreement over the number of jobs involved, no one disputes that the project would be a sizable net employer. The Obama administration estimated 5,000 to 6,000 construction jobs. Some other estimates are higher.
The project has been under regulatory review for about three years, which is roughly the administration’s time in office. Because the pipeline crosses international borders, the State Department is charged with assessing the project’s environmental impact and whether it’s in the “national interest.” State had signaled a decision by the end of this year
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-jobs-and-the-keystone-xl-pipeline/2011/11/11/gIQAdQVUCN_story.html
Hohohohoho...
From Wiki:
In February 2011, the Watchdog Institute, an independent nonprofit reporting center based at San Diego State University, published an investigation alleging that as leader of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Issa built a team that included staff members with close connections to industries that could benefit from his investigations For instance, several had ties to big oil billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch, whose companies could benefit from changes in regulations.
Issa is worth 300 million.
Here is the real study:
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/research/upload/GLI_KeystoneXL_Reportpdf.pdf
The report concluded:
- TransCanada Will Spend $3 to $4 Billion in the US, Not $7 Billion as Claimed
- KXL Will Generate 2,500-4,650 Construction Jobs & most Jobs Created Will Be Temporary and Non-Local
- KXL Steel Manufactured Outside the United States
- Perryman Study Deeply Flawed and Provides No Sound Basis for Jobs Claims
- KXL Will Have Minor Impact on Unemployment Levels
- Keystone XL Could Be a Job Killer
Conclusion: Employment Potential from KXL is Little to None; Decision should be based on other factors.
Other fact:
http://mediamatters.org/research/201111090012
Isn't it time for Republic'CONS' to stop telling lies to the public? It's getting REALLY old!
The new report is titled “National Solar Jobs Census 2011: A Review of the Solar Workforce.” It was conducted by The Solar Foundation with the labor market consulting firm Green LMI Consulting, a division of BW Research Partnership, and assistance from Cornell University. The report cuts right to the mustard, contrasting a 2 percent net job loss in the fossil fuel power generation sector with a solar industry growth rate of 6.8 percent. According to the report, more than 100,000 people are employed in the U.S. solar industry. Almost half of the solar firms in the report said they planned to hire more workers in the next twelve months, with a total of 24,000 new jobs created."
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ljohnson/the_historical_record_of_job_g.html
Between 1977 and 1991, EPA (1991) estimated that approximately 50,000 new environmental protection jobs per year were created. And between 1997 and 2007, as alternative clean energy markets have increasingly expanded, PEW Charitable Trusts (2009) recently estimated as many as 85,000 jobs per year were created. We could have spent our resources on other goods and services,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-21/germany-s-green-drive-subdues-2013-power-prices-energy-markets.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany
Until this congressman and the rest of Republic'CONS' elected officials pull their heads out of Grover Norquist (you know what) and get voted out of office altogether, then perhaps America alternative energy future will be brighter.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-21/germany-s-green-drive-subdues-2013-power-prices-energy-markets.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany
If our elected political leaders like this author spending more time to learn and explore the rest of the world and pull their heads out of Grover Norquist (you know what) then America may eventually heading to a better future perhaps.
How about just processing the oil where is sits and using it in the US? No pipeline needed, it would reduce our imports AND it would also put people to work.
Of course anyone with a brain knows that this is not about jobs or reducing America's dependence on foreign oil, it is about MORE profits for the oil companies.
The global Environmental Technology (ET) market is approximately $782 billion.
The U.S. is the world’s largest producer and consumer of environmental technologies worldwide.
In the United States, approximately 119,000 enterprises are engaged in the ET business.
The U.S. ET industry generates approximately $300 billion in revenues, $43.8 billion in exports, and supports close to 1.7 million jobs.
http://web.ita.doc.gov/ete/eteinfo.nsf/068f3801d047f26e85256883006ffa54/4878b7e2fc08ac6d85256883006c452c?OpenDocument
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/geography_environment/environmental_industry_threatened_and_endangered_species.html
The Resource Recovery segment led growth in the U.S. environmental industry in 2010, with revenues up nearly 18%. For recyclers of metals, glass, plastics, and paper it was the best year in a long time, although construction and demolition (C&D) waste suffered from the lack of construction activity. Rising commodity prices rather than increased volumes were behind this double-digit performance.
In 2010 was Clean Energy Systems & Power, a segment that had enjoyed robust annual growth of 30-50% from 2005-2008 but declined by 8% in revenues in 2010 as wind installations in the U.S. halved from 10 GW in 2009 to 5 GW last year. Environmental projects in the clean energy sector are expected to recover to 20-40% sales growth in 2011-2014.
And plenty of sources in the net
http://web.ita.doc.gov/ete/eteinfo.nsf/068f3801d047f26e85256883006ffa54/4878b7e2fc08ac6d85256883006c452c?OpenDocument
REAL FACTS
The global ET market is approximately $782 billion.
The U.S. is the world’s largest producer and consumer of environmental technologies worldwide.
In the United States, approximately 119,000 enterprises are engaged in the ET business.
The U.S. ET industry generates approximately $300 billion in revenues, $43.8 billion in exports, and supports close to 1.7 million jobs.
U.S. Environmental Export Competitiveness 2004-2008
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Global Market
638.6
671.2
711.9
757.9
782.4
US Market
245.2
256.3
271.4
289.6
299.5
Non-US Market
393.4
414.8
440.5
468.4
493.8
% Exports
11.4%
12.0%
13.1%
14.2%
14.6%
US Exports
28.7
31.8
36.9
43.1
43.8
% Growth in U.S. Env'l Exports
10%
11%
16%
17%
2%
US Share of Non-US Market
7.3%
7.7%
8.4%
9.2%
8.9%
Trade Surplus
5.9
8.2
10.7
12.8
10.9
Units:$ U.S. billion
SOURCE: Environmental Business International, San Diego, CA
Between 1977 and 1991, EPA (1991) estimated that approximately 50,000 new environmental protection jobs per year were created. And between 1997 and 2007, as alternative clean energy markets have increasingly expanded, PEW Charitable Trusts (2009) recently estimated as many as 85,000 jobs per year were created.