Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 04/13/2009 4:29:31 AM PDT by Man50D
Every “green job” created with government money in Spain over the last eight years came at the cost of 2.2 regular jobs, and only one in 10 of the newly created green jobs became a permanent job, says a new study released this month. The study draws parallels with the green jobs programs of the Obama administration.
President Obama, in fact, has used Spain’s green initiative as a blueprint for how the United States should use federal funds to stimulate the economy. Obama's economic stimulus package,which Congress passed in February, allocates billions of dollars to the green jobs industry.
But the author of the study, Dr. Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at Juan Carlos University in Madrid, said the United States should expect results similar to those in Spain:
"Spain’s experience (cited by President Obama as a model) reveals with high confidence, by two different methods, that the U.S. should expect a loss of at least 2.2 jobs on average, or about 9 jobs lost for every 4 created, to which we have to add those jobs that non-subsidized investments with the same resources would have created,” wrote Calzada in his report: Study of the Effects on Employment of Public Aid to Renewable Energy Sources.
Obama repeatedly has said that the United States should look to Spain as an example of a country that has successfully applied federal money to green initiatives in order to stimulate its economy.
“Think of what’s happening in countries like Spain, Germany and Japan, where they’re making real investments in renewable energy,” said Obama while lobbying Congress, in January to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. “They’re surging ahead of us, poised to take the lead in these new industries.”
“Their governments have harnessed their people’s hard work and ingenuity with bold investments — investments that are paying off in good, high-wage jobs — jobs they won’t lose to other countries,” said Obama. “There is no reason we can’t do the same thing right here in America. … In the process, we’ll put nearly half a million people to work building wind turbines and solar panels; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to new jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.”
Included in the stimulus package, for example, was $4.5 billion to convert government buildings into high-performance green buildings.
According to the Calzada’s study, Spain is a strong example of the government spending money on green ideas to stimulate its economy.
“No other country has given such broad support to the construction and production of electricity through renewable sources,” says the report. “The arguments for Spain’s and Europe’s ‘green jobs’ schemes are the same arguments now made in the U.S., principally that massive public support would produce large numbers of green jobs.”
But in the study’s introduction Calzada argues that the renewable jobs program hindered, rather than helped, Spain’s attempts to emerge from its recession.
“The study’s results show how such ‘green jobs’ policy clearly hinders Spain’s way out of the current economic crisis, even while U.S. politicians insist that rushing into such a scheme will ease their own emergence from the turmoil,” says Calzada. “This study marks the very first time a critical analysis of the actual performance and impact has been made."
Pat Michaels, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, a free market group, told CNSNews.com that the study’s conclusions do not surprise him. He added that the United States should expect similar results with the stimulus money it spends on green initiatives.
“There is no reason to think things will be any different here,” Michaels said. “In the short run you have to ask who is doing the hiring, and in the long run how efficient is it to have people serving technology such as windmills. We are creating inefficiencies.”
Michaels also said he was not surprised by the study’s finding that only one out of 10 jobs were permanent.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” said Michaels. “When we see how imperfect wind energy is and how expensive it is to maintain -- I think many of those jobs will become impermanent here in the U.S. as well.”
Inquiries for comment to the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for American Progress were not answered before this story went to press.
How many jobs did it create when Barry flew in a Chef from Italy for his little Pizza Party last week?
How many jobs will it create when Barry flies in a Chef from Spain the next time he gets a hankerin’ for paella?
*SNORT*
Common sense. Government jobs are not self-sustainable. Government jobs can only exist on the backs of private-sector jobs. Obama's stimulus did little to get the private-sector working again. The amount of money spent on stimulus could have created so many more jobs if concentrated on the private sector and those jobs would have been sustainable and not temporary. Economic idiots designed our stimulus package. Obama probably spent about $1 million to create each job. You could easily stimulate the creation of a private sector job for about $50K.
BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN TO CREATE 5 MILLION NEW GREEN JOBS
http://obama.3cdn.net/eff0ff1daa8bafe984_4yjqmv8j3.pdf
I agree with Barry on one thing. Jobs are about “green.” The spending king, not the salad fixin’s..
Dang typo. The spending *kind*...
No biggie. Shift the context ever so slightly, and “spending king” is spot on... (sigh).
The so-called stimulus is completely misdirected. Instinctively, we all know it will be a complete bust, driving our country deep into debt. It’s just common sense.
But here’s proof positive we are right.
Too bad nobama and his thugs will take little/no notice.
Sunday’s Austin American Statesman had a two page article that the stimulus bill sets aside $8Billion for high speed rail and then goes on to say that not one high speed rail system will be built with the $8 billion. It will be a complete waste of money with no positive result on the us rail system.
Since when have libs cared about facts or the actual consequences of their actions?
“Green” makes them feel warm and fuzzy, so “green” it will be. When “green” fails, their answer will be more “green”.
Liberalism is a narcissistic psychosis.
Green jobs produce goods and services less efficiently than real jobs which they replace (that aren’t subsidized). Less output with heavier costs by definition isn’t “economic”.
If there was an economic payback in these so-called green jobs and green industries, venture capitalists would have been in them years ago. The only way they will pay off is if the government subsizes them...which means funding them with the tax dollars received from successful ventures (just like the article says).
These are the same people that believe that the Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado are only top sellers because Ford and GM don't make enough Fiestas and Aveos. Economics, finance, marketing, common sense logic, etc., are not required courses at Harvard Law School.
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