By William Warren
“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”—Jonathan Swift
The dunces of the Global Warming movement have formed their confederacy. Their latest rallying cry is “Green Jobs!” And the genius they have chosen to skewer is one Michele Bachmann, whose appearance in their otherwise rosy world have left them purple with rage.
“Green” jobs—that is, jobs in the renewable energy industry—seem to be all the rage these days. After all, one of Barack Obama’s biggest campaign promises was to create 5 million of these so-called “green” jobs.
According to his logic, the renewable “green” energy industry will not only beat back “man-made Global Warming” and ease America’s dependence on foreign oil, but it will also help pull the nation out of the current economic recession. None of which, of course, is true.
The truth is that Barack Obama and his environmental task force of dunces has been caught green handed in a bold faced lie. The so-called “green” jobs solution will neither solve America’s energy needs nor abate the economic crisis.
As Kenneth P. Green of the American Enterprise Institute summarizes:
“In short, the Obama plan reflects fallacious thinking of the first order. There may be sound reasons to switch from existing energy sources to renewables, including the need to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the need to reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, and the need to meet growing energy demand. If Americans wish to pay for a wholesale transformation of the energy industry, that is their choice. But let’s not lie about the costs, and let’s not espouse an economic fallacy that is nearly 160 years old. Obama’s “green jobs” plan would indeed create jobs, but it would do so by killing other jobs.”
This widespread purging of “other jobs” has already been seen in places like Spain, where “cap-and-trade” legislation and investment in renewable energy and “green” jobs have wreaked havoc on the Spanish economy for over a decade.
According to a recent study from King Juan Carlos University in Madrid, the Spanish/EU-style “green” jobs agenda has been economically detrimental to Spain and has destroyed far more jobs than it has created. The study concludes that such policies will be an obstacle to Spain’s emergence from the economic recession and, in fact, will only exacerbate the crisis.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is one of those in Congress who has worked hard to dispel the myth about the “green” jobs agenda and inform Americans of its overall harmful effect. As she said in an exclusive interview with the Washington News Observer, “For every ‘green’ job that’s been created in Spain, it has cost Spain 770,000 dollars per job to create the ‘green’ job. And for every ‘green’ job that’s been created, 2.2 real jobs have been lost. So, there has been a net job loss for Spain, not an increase—and at a heavy price to the taxpayers.”
Applying Rep. Bachmann’s logic (which is directly derived from the aforementioned study) to the current American Economy, if Barack Obama follows through on his promise to create 5 million “green” jobs, 11 million American workers will lose their jobs. In short, the “green” jobs agenda will result in a net loss of 6 million American jobs.
However, Rep. Bachmann and others need not look across the Atlantic to witness the economic destruction wrought by cockamamie environmentalist regulations. The wholesale elimination of “other jobs” is indeed underway here in the United States.
The coal industry—and hence those employed by said industry—has already begun to feel the chilling effects of Obama’s Green Economy. For example, Consol Energy, a prominent coal company, has already closed the doors on two large coal mines in the Appalachian region, citing the uncertainty over costs of imminent new regulations.
And should those about to lose their mining jobs be “fortunate” enough to acquire “green” jobs under the Obama Economy will find themselves struggling to make ends meet. The simple truth is that Green jobs pay very little green. Even the leftwing environmentalist Sierra Club recognizes this painful reality. As the San Francisco Examiner explains:
“A report released in February by the Sierra Club concluded that ‘green jobs are not always good jobs’ that can support a middle-class lifestyle. Despite heavy government subsidies, wind- and solar-energy manufacturers currently pay wages below the national average, and a third of nonunion green-construction workers take home less than the federal poverty rate. For them, ‘green’ means ‘poor.’”
So where does America stand under Obama’s Green Economy?
Well, not only will “Green” jobs result in a net loss of roughly 6 million American jobs, but the green jobs that are created will pay meager wages at best. And all of this, of course, is predicated on the “man-made Global Warming” assumption, in which only 34% of the American people believe.
In sum, Barack Obama and his confederacy of eco-dunces have been caught green-handed. Their false scenario writ large.
“Green” jobs will not only plunge the American economy even deeper into the red, they will leave the American worker blue—with a future painted black.
William Warren is a Contributing Editor of ALG News Bureau.
