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In the Bay Area as in much of the country, the green economy is not proving to be the job-creation engine that many politicians envisioned. President Obama once pledged to create five million green jobs over 10 years. Gov. Jerry Brown promised 500,000 clean-technology jobs statewide by the end of the decade. But the results so far suggest such numbers are a pipe dream.
... the sector actually lost 492 positions from 2003 to 2010 in the South Bay, where the unemployment rate in June was 10.5 percent.
Even the weatherization of homes failed.
Federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed, government records show. Two years after it was awarded $186 million in federal stimulus money to weatherize drafty homes, California has spent only a little over half that sum and has so far created the equivalent of just 538 full-time jobs in the last quarter, according to the State Department of Community Services and Development.
...the program never really caught on as homeowners balked at the upfront costs.
"Companies and public policy officials really overestimated how much consumers care about energy efficiency," said Sheeraz Haji, chief executive of the Cleantech Group, a market research firm. "People care about their wallet and the comfort of their home, but it's not a sexy thing."
Job training programs also failed. It ended up subsidizing $82,000 per trainee.
Can we PLEASE cut these subsidies from the federal budget?!
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
11,974 posts, read 25,476,450 times
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I'm a conservative AND I do believe that "Green Jobs" are going to become an important part of our economy out of necessity. But ultimately going Green has to be as economical as going Brown. In areas where this has occurred (like wind farms going up everywhere in the Red States of the Great Plains) it will happen, but because of the free market, not gov't subsidies.
Fossil fuels are in finite supply, but I think America is great enough to make the shift to Green w/o everyone living in a 20 story tower and taking transit. I actually would love to buy a house and put up solar panels, even buy an electric car. I also plan on using my back yard to grow organic vegetables. That doesn't make me unAmerican.
I'm a conservative AND I do believe that "Green Jobs" are going to become an important part of our economy out of necessity. But ultimately going Green has to be as economical as going Brown. In areas where this has occurred (like wind farms going up everywhere in the Red States of the Great Plains) it will happen, but because of the free market, not gov't subsidies.
Fossil fuels are in finite supply, but I think America is great enough to make the shift to Green w/o everyone living in a 20 story tower and taking transit. I actually would love to buy a house and put up solar panels, even buy an electric car. I also plan on using my back yard to grow organic vegetables. That doesn't make me unAmerican.
If they could make it work, government subsidies would not be needed because people like you would want it - which is fine.
My problem is pouring more and more public money on technology that can't sustain itself financially.
My problem is the untruth of global warming that causes these unnecessary changes in how we produce energy.
My problem is the untruth that there is a finite supply of oil in the ground. The earth produces this stuff. The only problem is if we use it faster than the earth can produce it. There was a story I read yesterday where a rig was celebrating 150 years of activity. It was either the first in America, or in the Gulf of Mexico.
IN a magazine called "Distributed Energy" there are several stories ever month of busineses, including manufacturing, investing in Green energy. A local company Stonybrook Farms yogurt has covered their parking lot with water heating solar collectors. Green energy will be utilized where it makes sense.
IMHO small diesel cogeneration units burning straight vegatable oil made from "weeds" a natural for anyplace with high electrical costs.
Two solar panel plant, one that Obama visited, just go under. This after getting $535million loan guarantee loan from the taxpayers.
"the company became the first recipient of an Energy Department loan guarantee under the stimulus in March 2009, which was intended to “finance construction of the first phase of the company’s new manufacturing facility” for photovoltaic solar panels."
Key Dems: Obama's 'green jobs' plan a bust (http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/key-dems-obamas-green-jobs-plan-bust - broken link)
Some top Congressional Democrats are losing faith in President Obama's signature employment initiative, the promotion of so-called "green jobs." They've lost so much faith that on Thursday one liberal Democratic member of Congress called the president's green jobs program "a lot of talk."
... "Of course, we want to be a part of the new innovation and the green jobs," Rep. Maxine Waters said on MSNBC Thursday. "But you know, the green jobs have been about a lot of talk and not a lot has been happening on that." A few hours later, also on MSNBC, Waters said flatly: "All of this talk about the green jobs never materialized."
... Last month, the chairman of that group, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, told the Huffington Post that green jobs had little meaning for his constituents. "African-Americans out there were saying, 'What do we have in common with this new, green technology?'" Cleaver told the website.
I have no problem giving them credit when they are correct.
I still believe in Green Jobs, but I think that more needs to be done to ensure that it is just as, if not more than, financially sound as Brown jobs. That is the problem. WE need to look at extremely green countries (Germany, Finland, etc.) and take stock of what they are doing. For example, Germany has waste bins for specific things on a much more detailed scale than we do. This allows compartmetalization, which allows for more jobs. Simple things like this can ease Green living into American life. We can't expect 310 million people to just stop everything and change there whole lives. It needs to incrementalized, so that both the jobs and people are prepared.
I'm a conservative AND I do believe that "Green Jobs" are going to become an important part of our economy out of necessity. But ultimately going Green has to be as economical as going Brown. In areas where this has occurred (like wind farms going up everywhere in the Red States of the Great Plains) it will happen, but because of the free market, not gov't subsidies.
Fossil fuels are in finite supply, but I think America is great enough to make the shift to Green w/o everyone living in a 20 story tower and taking transit. I actually would love to buy a house and put up solar panels, even buy an electric car. I also plan on using my back yard to grow organic vegetables. That doesn't make me unAmerican.
No it doesn't and I would too but solar panels and electric cars cost too damn much money. It's that simple. I looked into buying a windmill for my backyard and it's just not worth the cost with the available wind and cost to install. A roof full of solar panel runs around 75K. You would die before it paid for itself. May be slightly cheaper now and probably some incentives from the gvt or power company now but still way outta my range.
How about we quit subsidizing the dirty energy industry and then use that extra cash to invest in clean energy subsidies. We can eventually stop helping the clean energy industry once they have received the same amount of help that the dirty energy industry has received over the decades.
I still believe in Green Jobs, but I think that more needs to be done to ensure that it is just as, if not more than, financially sound as Brown jobs. That is the problem. WE need to look at extremely green countries (Germany, Finland, etc.) and take stock of what they are doing. For example, Germany has waste bins for specific things on a much more detailed scale than we do. This allows compartmetalization, which allows for more jobs. Simple things like this can ease Green living into American life. We can't expect 310 million people to just stop everything and change there whole lives. It needs to incrementalized, so that both the jobs and people are prepared.
Spain went all in on the "green" initiative and it was a disaster. Rates went up and jobs went out the door. This is the plan Obama has touted back in the day we need to follow. Well it didn't work there...........
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