American Businesses Should Spend Some of Their Cash Reserves to Create ‘Green’ Jobs...

CNSNews ^ | February 9, 2011 | Penny Starr

[jazusamo]

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson holds up
the boxing gloves she was given at a
conference of labor unions and
environmental activists in Washington, D.C.
on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011. The gloves mark
her fight with lawmakers who oppose EPA
regulations. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

(CNSNews.com) - Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson suggested on Tuesday that American businesses with a “record amount of cash holdings,” estimated at $1.93 trillion, could invest some of those holdings to create jobs that advance pollution control.

Jackson, speaking at the BlueGreen Alliance national conference in Washington, D.C., cited a Dec. 10 Wall Street Journal article about a U.S. Treasury report, which estimated that there is $1.93 trillion in cash and other liquid assets of non-financial U.S. companies sitting dormant, not being invested.

VIDEO 1:12 minutes

“Even a portion of the $1.93 trillion invested in developing and installing new pollution control technology would result in good jobs right here for American workers,” Jackson said to the gathering of labor unions and environmental activists.

Jackson said that standards and regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are good for job creation and the economy.

“The fact is that updating environmental standards, which we do to protect American families from things like mercury and acid gases and other toxic pollutants that cause asthma and lung disease, especially in children, create a good economic climate for investment and good jobs for American workers,” Jackson said. 

The Wall Street Journal article also stated the reasons for businesses sitting on large cash holdings and that those holdings are not beneficial to businesses.

“The cash buildup shows the deep caution many companies feel about investing in expansion while the economic recovery remains painfully slow and high unemployment and battered household finances continue to limit consumers' ability to spend,” the article states.

“The buildup has a big downside for companies, which get little return on their money because interest rates are low, but it reflects the relatively few opportunities they see to deploy their cash more creatively.”

In a commentary on Jan. 12 on RealClearPolitics, Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that uncertainty is the “enemy of investment and hiring.”

“The degree of change and uncertainty is unprecedented -- is it any wonder that many companies and other employers are sitting on their hands waiting to see how things work out? To know what their tax and regulatory obligations will be? To understand how new policies will impact their operations?” Donohue said.

“Uncertainty is the enemy of investment and hiring,” he said. “Through smart, commonsense policies, lawmakers can help increase certainty, especially when it comes to health care, tax, and climate change policies.”

Jackson said that despite “polarized debates” about the effects EPA regulations and standards have on business and the U.S. economy “environmental protection and economic growth can and do go hand in hand.”

She said the EPA’s “fundamental responsibility is protecting the health of the American people,” and warned against “special interests” that don’t understand the importance of that mission.

“It is important, as special interests try to gut our safeguards like the Clean Air Act that EPA has worked for and under for decades,” Jackson said. “And while special interests try to find loopholes so big polluters can skirt other common sense health protections.

“It is important to recognize these possibilities at a time when American companies have a record amount of cash holdings and liquid assets,” Jackson said.

According to The Wall Street Journal, among those companies with the top cash and liquid assets are Microsoft Corp., with $43.25 billion in cash and short-term investments; Cisco Systems Inc. with $38.9 billion; and Google Inc. with $33.4 billion.

[1scrappymom]

Does anybody really believe this crap outside of the media and unions?

Why the heck do jobs have to be “GREEN”? With what is going on in the country, shouldn’t they be promoting any JOB?

Oh wait, they are too wrapped up in their fake morality to be honestly concerned about people.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Actually Lisa Jackson just let the cat about of the bag, this isn’t about global warming, it’s about pollution. This is why the countries with the highest rates of pollution are exempt fro kyoto.

Carbon credits and the green way of life is the globalist agenda for destroying America and it’s freedoms. Because if the left called it pollution, we would be up in arms about why the countries with the highest rates of pollution get a pass.

Think about it. Exxon in the US gets screwed but saudi Arabia oil fields get a pass.

[expatpat]

How do they find such idiot a*holes?

[jazusamo]

That’s exactly what they’re doing. China was the number one polluter in the world a couple years ago and probably still is but we don’t hear much of anything about it now.

[DoughtyOne]

It will be amazing if there is one large business or corporation left in the U. S. by the time these clowns are done.

[Frantzie]

You are not going to see any job creation until he is gone and out of office. It is not going to happen.

The idiots who watch OBama TV help enable and empower him so they are just as bad. And no Fox is not our friend. TV is NOT our friend.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Lisa Jackson is an old Marxist hag who needs to be tossed in jail for sedition.

Note to the new GOP House members. DEFUND the EPA to an anual budget of $0.00

[DonaldC]

“Cash reserves????”

This is the largest example of how gov workers think differently from those in the private sector. A gov worker spends all they can because if they don’t spend it this year, they loose it next year. In the private sector, the motivation is to do it cheaper and save it for the future.

[Frantzie]

No their are like facists and nazis who are pure evil.

[tet68]

I learned my lesson when a friend and I went to the
SBA to see about a loan of 25,000 to start a business
they told us to come back when we needed a million.

[LibertarianLiz]

The only proper response to the EPA is for the new majority in congress to stop funding the EPA completely. I know that sounds radical but it’s the only way to fix this problem.

I have thought this for a long time. I believe this is what happens when an agency actually achieves its goals; but, is still funded and has to look for things to regulate. There are no "green" jobs. The only "green" jobs that exist, exist because of government subsidies. Take away the money, and these "green" companies and jobs disappear. It is not a green, but a black hole which sucks up our tax dollars and gives nothing back in return.

[N. Theknow]

Mr. Businessman is lamenting over whether to invest in the gold mine that is high speed rail or the vast windfall profits to be made in green jobs and alternative energy.

Now where did I put that "/sarcasm" tag? It's around here some where.

[AU72]

The Soviet Union showed what happens to such a command economy. The CHICOMs ditched that 30 years ago.

[Dacus943]

"American Businesses Should Spend Some of Their Cash Reserves to Create ‘Green’ Jobs..."

I AGREE 100%.

Fire illegals and hire Americans to do the Landscaping!

[JPG]

Lisa, take a good look at Spain and their experience with ‘green’ energy. Their socialist government dumped untold billions into subsidizing solar and wind and ‘green jobs’ and guess what? They ended up cutting off the money because it wasn’t working and was driving them even faster toward default. Meanwhile, hundreds of years worth of coal and oil sit untapped in the US, all because of the stupid EPA.

[jazusamo]

Exactly. And now some companies that are more than willing to take millions in subsidies to develop green energy are having a hard time with enviro nazis because whether it be ocean, mountains or deserts the fields are a detriment of some kind. The enviros want green energy but then oppose it because of their bent ideas. sheesh

[Arm_Bears]

Someone should inform this uncivil bitch that you can’t create a market where one doesn’t exist.

[Secret Agent Man]

American Businesses Should Their Cash Reserves, Suggests EPA’s Lisa Jackson American Businesses Should Their Cash Reserves on 'creating green jobs', Suggests EPA’s Lisa Jackson American Businesses Should Their Cash Reserves to the government to redistribute, Suggests EPA’s Lisa Jackson All are the same thing.

[Secret Agent Man]

Sorry, regular formatting doesn’t seem to be working for me.

[antiRepublicrat]

I love the strange idea they seem to have that corporations are putting all their money in cash under their mattresses. Whether it’s in a bank or whatever it’s already being invested, just maybe not directly by the company. No rational businessman just lets money sit.