Obama's groenebanenplan mislukt

Links geeft altijd hoog op van de betekenis van 'groen' voor economische groei. Maar het blijkt dat vele groene activiteiten kritisch afhankelijk zijn van permanente subsidiestromen.

Als de subsidiestekker eruit gaat, gaan zij failliet, hetgeen gepaard gaat met vernietiging van kapitaal en werkgelegenheid.

Verschillende landen hebben daar nu ervaring mee. Dat geldt bijvoorbeeld voor Spanje, Duitsland en Engeland. Ook in de VS breekt het inzicht door dat de groene sector geen banenmotor is.

Onder de titel, 'The Obama Green Jobs Initiative Has Been A Failure', schreef Investment Business Daily:

When they voted for Barack Obama in 2008, some Americans believed his promise of a green economy bursting with jobs. Some still do. Unfortunately, there's this little matter of reality.

While campaigning four years ago, Sen. Barack Obama promised that a $150 billion in government spending on renewable energy projects would create 5 million green-collar jobs over 10 years. Near the end of this administration's first year in office, Vice President Joe Biden promised 722,000 green jobs would be generated by the stimulus. A green-jobs czar was even appointed.

So what's happened?

Well, the jobless rate is still above 8% and the number of workers no longer in the labor force is nearly 88 million, up almost 10 million from the day this president entered the White House. Obama could have boosted job growth by approving the Keystone XL pipeline and opening more federal tracts to oil and gas drilling. But he didn't. Instead he chose to stay on the green-collar route, which has yielded virtually nothing in the way of jobs.

Last summer the New York Times reported that "federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed." More recently, an analysis by Reuters found that "the millions of 'green jobs' Obama promised have been slow to sprout."

Within the stimulus package there's a $500 million job-training program that "has so far helped fewer than 20,000 people find work, far short of its goal." Reuters reported last week that the program's initial results "were so poor that the Labor Department's inspector general recommended last fall that the agency should return the $327 million that remained unspent."

Meantime, the wind industry "has shed 10,000 jobs since 2009," said Reuters, and renewable and alternative energy companies that the government has shown favor to keep shutting down or filing for bankruptcy.While all these jobs have been lost or have simply failed to materialize, Reuters reports that the oil and gas industry "has added 75,000 jobs since Obama took office, according to Labor Department statistics." Imagine how many more would have been added if Obama wasn't hostile to fossil fuels. Despite the reality, the administration still brags about its green-employment success and promises to "double down on clean energy."

But what are these jobs it's supposedly creating?

In de statistieken blijkt de definitie van 'groene banen' flink te zijn opgerekt, zodat het resultaat zo op het eerste gezicht best aardig oogt. Maar vele van die banen bestonden al voordat Obama aantrad. Bovendien, als men alle oneigenlijke toerekeningen wegfiltert, blijft er niet veel van over.

Conclusie:

This administration won't admit that its green jobs initiative has been a failure. It will instead stubbornly dig in and keep pushing programs that won't work, which is one of many reasons the country desperately needs a new president.

Bron : Daagelijkse Standaard.nl / Hans Labohm

The Obama Green Jobs Initiative Has Been A Failure

Out Of Work: When they voted for Barack Obama in 2008, some Americans believed his promise of a green economy bursting with jobs. Some still do. Unfortunately, there's this little matter of reality.

While campaigning four years ago, Sen. Barack Obama promised that a $150 billion in government spending on renewable energy projects would create 5 million green-collar jobs over 10 years. Near the end of this administration's first year in office, Vice President Joe Biden promised 722,000 green jobs would be generated by the stimulus. A green-jobs czar was even appointed.

So what's happened?

Well, the jobless rate is still above 8% and the number of workers no longer in the labor force is nearly 88 million, up almost 10 million from the day this president entered the White House.

Obama could have boosted job growth by approving the Keystone XL pipeline and opening more federal tracts to oil and gas drilling. But he didn't. Instead he chose to stay on the green-collar route, which has yielded virtually nothing in the way of jobs.

Last summer the New York Times reported that "federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed." More recently, an analysis by Reuters found that "the millions of 'green jobs' Obama promised have been slow to sprout."

Within the stimulus package there's a $500 million job-training program that "has so far helped fewer than 20,000 people find work, far short of its goal." Reuters reported last week that the program's initial results "were so poor that the Labor Department's inspector general recommended last fall that the agency should return the $327 million that remained unspent."

Meantime, the wind industry "has shed 10,000 jobs since 2009," said Reuters, and renewable and alternative energy companies that the government has shown favor to keep shutting down or filing for bankruptcy.

But what are these jobs it's supposedly creating?While all these jobs have been lost or have simply failed to materialize, Reuters reports that the oil and gas industry "has added 75,000 jobs since Obama took office, according to Labor Department statistics." Imagine how many more would have been added if Obama wasn't hostile to fossil fuels. Despite the reality, the administration still brags about its green-employment success and promises to "double down on clean energy."

Last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that America has 3.1 million green jobs. CNN noted that the figure is "nearly five times the number of people that work making cars and trucks and over half the amount employed in the construction industry."

Sounds impressive. But let's look deeper into the data.

Included in that 3.1 million are not just solar panel makers and wind-farm hands. BLS classifies organic farmers, factory workers producing recycled iron and steel, some school and employee bus transportation employees, thrift shop clerks — 107,000 of them — and a variety of repairmen as employees in the green goods and service sector. A number of petroleum and coal products manufacturing jobs are considered green, as well.

Also part of the green-collar throng are the hundreds of thousands of federal and state government employees who enforce environmental regulations and administrate environmental programs. And don't forget those who work in museums, zoos and parks. Yes, some of them are also considered green employees.

Clearly, many of these jobs were created before the Obama administration entered office. Which leaves us with this question: What is the number of jobs that this White House has actually created? According to CNN, it's "substantially smaller" than the 3.1 million jobs listed as green by the BLS.

This administration won't admit that its green jobs initiative has been a failure. It will instead stubbornly dig in and keep pushing programs that won't work, which is one of many reasons the country desperately needs a new president.

Bron : Investors.com