You may recall former U.S. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, declaring during her term that House Bill after House Bill was about jobs, jobs, jobs – green jobs.
The government – Ms. Pelosi’s and President Obama’s – presented a grand plan for green jobs, offering benefits. First, there would be green jobs for the jobless in these times of dire unemployment straits. Second, the jobs would offer the furtherance, if not creation, of a new American industry of green products to be sold on a global scale. Third, the jobs would reduce climate changing pollutants.
Federal incentives, grants, subsidies and loan guarantees would provide seed capital for green businesses to start production of green energy products, like solar panels. By now we know the jump start incentive didn’t help Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy after receiving $528 million in federal loans. Many other green programs – most backed by federal funds or incentives – are also faltering.
An example is a stimulus program under The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration to “train and prepare individuals for careers in green jobs.” The Office of the Inspector General reports that thus far about $162.8 million has been spent. The program was targeted to train 125,000 workers for green jobs, but only 53,000 have been trained – about 42 percent of target. However, of that percentage only 8,035 have found work after being trained and only 1,033 (less than 1 percent), were still in their green jobs after six months.
What sort of green jobs did those 1,033 hold? It turns out the green jobs were not necessarily new jobs. In fact, a good number of the green jobs are not new jobs but replacements for positions already existing, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The green jobs include bus drivers since mass transportation reduces the pollution of personal transportation, university professors that teach ecology courses, and Washington Lobbyists that lobby for energy loan guarantees. Are those the green jobs most of you think about? The Oversight Committee charitably estimates each green job created only costs the American taxpayer $157,000.
Environmental America, an advocacy group, estimates there are about 24,000 green jobs actually involved in solar manufacturing in the U.S. That is up about 6.8 percent from last year, but the definition of a green worker is one who spends at least half their time in green manufacturing. After all, the solar panel manufacturing process is not very labor intensive with only about 10 percent of the cost derived from labor. Employment appears to be in jeopardy with the recent flood of cheap Chinese solar panels on the U.S. market.
The Texas Comptroller reports school districts had granted tax abatements averaging $1.6 million for each new wind energy job but only $166 thousand for each new manufacturing job.
The Wall Street Journal reports our government has invested $90 billion (yes,with a “b”) on green job creation. The number of real green jobs for that investment look very scant. Maybe California Congressman Waxman and Massachusetts Congressman Markey are right – our problem is that we have not invested enough in green jobs. Only the Government would call that a bargain.
Gary Smith
President & CEO
