Obama's Green-Jobs Fraud Exposed

IBD Editorials ^ | June 21, 2012 | Editor

[Kaslin]

Industrial Policy: For a $9 billion investment, the administration created just over 900 new, permanent jobs. We could've had 20,000 jobs building a pipeline with not a dollar of taxpayer money being wasted.

According to the report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, Section 1503 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus), the part that covers green energy projects got some $9 billion in stimulus cash for 2009-11 and created a whopping 910 direct jobs — those involved in the ongoing operation of the wind and solar projects that were funded.

Now, the report doesn't come right out and say this. You have to pick through it and look past the "indirect" jobs said to have been created by the manufacture and installation of the bird-chopping wind turbines and water-cleansed solar panels.

The administration has a most curious way of describing what a green job is, but if you count just the "direct" jobs, it cost taxpayers $9.8 million to create each of those long-term jobs.

Throw in the indirect jobs supporting the direct jobs estimate of 4,600 (we're confused too) and there are 5,510 total jobs (direct and indirect). Starting with the $9 billion in grants, the result to establish 5,510 jobs averages out to $1.63 million per job.

In an attempt to make things look not quite so wasteful, the report in its summary claims that for the 2009-11 time frame, there were an average 52,000-75,000 "direct and indirect jobs per year" created for the construction, installation and related work on the wind and solar projects

[factoryrat]

A bilkng of billions of dollars that only a shakedown artist from cook county like obama could pull off. I can see obama giving the middle finger salute and saying: “thanks for the cash, suckers!”.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Darrell Issa explores the Obama administration definition of Green Jobs

"If you sweep the floor in a solar panel facility, is that a Green Job?"
--Yes

"If you drive a hybrid bus, is that a Green Job?"
--Yes

"If you're a college professor teaching environmental studies, is that a Green Job?"
--Yes

"If you put gas in a hybrid bus, is that a Green Job?"
--Yes

"What about a clerk at a bicycle dealer?"
--Yes

"Is someone who works at an antique dealer in a Green Job?"
--Yes

""Do garbage men have Green Jobs?"
--Yes

""Do oil lobbyists have Green Jobs?"
--Yes

[Lurker]

Thank God for Congressman Issa.

[AZLiberty]

Closing down the nuclear industry in the 1980s cost one million jobs, and probably trillions of dollars transferred to Middle Eastern potentates.

[raptor22]

Green scam ping

[DTogo]

The 1603 “Cash Grant” program was a distortion of the otherwise successful PTC (production tax credit). 1603 allowed for projects to apply for ~30% of the upfront capital costs in the form of a grant instead of actually earning it back over time based on successful energy production: the PTC. This allowed for many sub-par wind farms to be build in low wind areas where the economics would not have been justified by relying on the PTC.