The article linked below details a number of other busts and empty promises, but perhaps the most interesting part is the link to a 2009 Stanford study on green jobs and its conclusion:
"“analysis…concludes that the advantages of increased jobs from renewable energy are vastly over-stated at costs prevailing today. It will require dramatic break-through in costs if renewable energy is to become a job generator.”
“Green power, however, does not appear to be a game changer on the job front. When job creation is compared to the cost of each power source option, green jobs are sometimes more and sometimes less than conventional energy jobs. More importantly, strategies that subsidize these investments will be shifting the country’s scarce resources from sectors that would create more jobs (as well as economic value). This conclusion applies even for an economy in a deep recession and where policy wants to stimulate employment.”
How 'bout them apples? This report was prophetic and has been borne out by events. No amount of magical thinking is going to transform so-called "green jobs" into something that will be a lifeline for this economy. Maybe downstream, after technological breakthroughs occur, there will be real promise, but for now it is North Dakota and its boom of old-fashioned oil and gas drilling and development that is creating its 3.2% unemployment rate to the envy of the other "green" states like Colorado and Oregon.
finance.townhall.com/columnists/amyoliver/2011/10/03/bursting_the_big_green_bubble
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