It's Not Easy Being Green

Ok I give up…what is a “green” job? As the Federal government tries to emphasize the need to clean up our act and be more environmentally responsible, green jobs would be a spin off benefit of that. Theoretically, since we are embarking on the use of new technologies to take better care of our planet, jobs will be crated within these emerging technologies to offset the job loss in other more environmentally damaging industries.

I have a hard time believing the Federal government understands what a job is let alone how to create one. Case in point is the stimulus plan. The administration claimed that the stimulus was a success, creating over 3,200 jobs in three months. Last month alone they cheered that the recession was easing since there were “only” about a quarter of a million new applications for unemployment, down from over 300,000 in the previous month. All I can say is Huh? Just the notion that they can claim success in either of these things sounds more like a Yogi Berra quote than a triumph for the economy.

There is even worse news. Most of the 3,200 jobs they claimed were a direct result of stimulus money were short term projects that provided 35 of hours of employment before the lucky individuals that held those positions were unemployed again.

Washington is full of numbers people, not jobs people. If you are displaced from your current job as a result of the Climate Bill, the folks in Washington will find a way to make the numbers work so they can claim yet another triumph. The proponents of the Waxman-Markey Bill claim that millions of green jobs will be created through this legislation. Don’t believe it.

These are the same people that claim that consumers will save hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs as a result of the passage of this bill. As we discussed yesterday the savings are not a result of lower cost but rather through the forced self denial of services. The smart grid will turn your smart appliances off for you or charge such an outrageous price for energy that you will be forced to turn them off yourself. The net result is hundreds of billions of dollars of energy that you simply couldn’t afford to use as you sit in the dark fanning yourself with a newspaper.

There go those numbers people again. If you don’t use energy because you can’t afford to, just think of how much money you are saving as a result of the passage of this bill! Why it’s….uh….hundreds of billions of dollars! What they don’t tell you is if you have already turned off your air conditioners, your televisions and your lights, the energy you cannot live without (your refrigerator for example) will cost nearly as much as what you are paying today to live comfortably. The “savings” they are claiming is the difference between what you will be paying and what you would then have to pay to live your life as you did before.

Back to green jobs. As the limits for compliance become more difficult to meet and as the cost of purchasing the carbon credits become more expensive, some industries will simply close up and outsource their manufacturing to nations with less stringent and costly restrictions such as China and India. Hey! There’s no carbon reduction in that! Don’t worry; the Washington number whizzes can still show you how much this is helping the planet by quoting our own carbon emission data! See? This stuff is easy!

However, actually finding the “green” jobs in this is more like playing a game of “Where’s Waldo”. The companies that cannot relocate, like the utilities, will have to track and report their carbon dioxide emissions. Each of them will have to have at least one person to do that. Wow, that is at least a thousand green jobs right there. The reality is that companies are streamlining and still laying people off so that duty will probably be an added responsibility of someone that already works there. Even still, its green and it’s a new responsibility created by this bill so it counts. Many of the green jobs the proponents claim will be created by this legislation will be created in that way. A title change for an existing employee and not a real bona fide new position added to the roster.

The bill provides educational grant and loan money so that the people that lose their jobs as a result of this legislation can go back to school and train for a new and more environmentally friendly job. Of course if you’ve already had a job before you probably have all those middle class luxuries like a house and a car so you probably won’t meet the criteria to qualify for a grant. If you wish to avail yourself of this provision you will most likely have to take the loan and agree to pay it back later.

Conservative estimates state that as a result of the passage of this bill, the loss of jobs will average 1,145,000 between the years 2012 and 2035. Note: that this figure is after the green jobs created under this bill have already been deducted from the total number of jobs lost.

But why worry….we have a “Green Jobs Czar” now! Mr. Van Jones, whose official title is the Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Mr. Jones earned his B.A. from the University of Tennessee at Martin. While attending Yale law school, Jones served as an intern at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, acting as one of a number of observers on the trial of the assailants of Rodney King. In 1993, Jones earned his J.D. and moved to San Francisco. Mr. Jones is an environmental activist that sees an opportunity to use the transition to a green economy to lift the poor out of poverty.

While acting as an observer during the Rodney King riots in 1992, Mr. Jones was arrested along with other legal monitors and protestors. His arrest was deemed illegal and he was released and cleared of all charges. But it was during his time in jail that he met some very special people.

In his own words: "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.' I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary. I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th. By August, I was a communist."

To my knowledge Mr. Jones has never created a job, green or otherwise. While he does possess knowledge of the inner workings of environmental advocacy, he certainly lacks the credentials that would establish him as a liaison between those that create jobs and those that need them.

I’m afraid that the green job czar is just another political commentary on the ultimate goals of this administration and the green job claims of the proponents of this bill are simply another “red herring” topped with a very sour sauce.

Tomorrow…..How much is this going to cost me?

Paul