THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 39, March 7, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
LOSING JOBS WITH GREEN TECHNOLOGY
By Dennis T. Avery
GREEN TECHNOLOGY & AMERICA'S ENERGY & ECONOMIC FUTURE: THE IMPACT THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA'S GREEN
ENERGY EFFORTS ARE LIKELY TO HAVE ON EMPLOYMENT IN THE U.S.A. -- HOW PRODUCTION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IS
LIKELY TO AFFECT THE AMERICAN STANDARD OF LIVING
FULL STORY:
President Obama has allocated $4 billion in “stimulus funds” to help advance the “smart grid,” which is intended to
seamlessly integrate all our new solar and wind power into the national supply of electricity. Much of the $4 billion will be
spent to install 20 million new digital “smart meters.” These meters will instantly tell the power company how to deploy its
varied generating sources most effectively.
The “stimulus fund” goal is to create new “green” jobs. The Washington Post estimates that deploying the 20
million smart meters will create jobs for about 1,600 installers, and keep them employed for about five years. The
manufacturing process for the meters will be highly automated, so only a few hundred jobs would be involved there. Still,
2,000 green jobs for five years, paid for by stimulus funds, must be good. Or is it?
Let’s think this through. The smart meters report automatically to the power company. We’ll lose 28,000 existing,
permanent jobs for meter-readers. The Washington Post says all our “green” energy efforts are likely to produce
only tens of thousands of jobs, not the millions of jobs needed to keep America at full employment.
A good Spanish study, led by Dr. Gabriel Calzada of Juan Carlos University in Madrid, found that every renewable-energy
job created by the Spanish government has destroyed 2.2 other energy-related jobs. Worse, every megawatt of expensive
“green energy” has destroyed 5.39 jobs in non-energy sectors as products became too expensive for consumers to buy
— or as manufacturing shifted to countries without energy taxes. President Obama has held Spain up as a country for us
to emulate, which only emphasizes that Calzada’s study is likely an Obama-valid blueprint for our own energy future.
Note, by the way, that China has already become the world’s major source of wind turbines, cutting further into Obama’s
“green job” expectations. The wind turbine manufacturing will shortly be joined by our steel and aluminum industries,
fertilizer plants, and many other production facilities when the U.S. energy penalty taxes mount up.
Unfortunately, the $4 billion doesn’t replace our massive existing investments in coal-fired and gas-fired power plants, in
gasoline refineries and service stations, in natural gas pipelines and drilling rigs. In reality, the renewables will subtract
from our standard of living.
In 2007, U.S. subsidies to coal-fired electricity were 44 cents per megawatt hour, compared with $23.37 in subsidies for
wind turbine megawatts, and $24.34 in subsidies per solar megawatt. That’s a fair measure of the added cost for renewables,
except that wind and solar megawatts must also be billed for the additional costs of the fossil fueled plants that must be
built and kept in “spinning reserve” in case the wind drops or clouds cover the sun. Denmark, a world leader in wind, has
not decommissioned any fossil-power generators because of its “spinning reserve” requirement.
As Obama’s energy taxes force reductions in coal and oil production, the price of U.S. energy will double and triple — and
so will the costs of the things we buy. Clearly, if the President wasn’t afraid of man-made global warming, we would not
have spent the $4 billion on the “smart grid” at this moment of recession. Nor would we be planning massive and ineffective
wind farms.
We might, instead, be designing new coal-fired power plants with the U.S. Department of Energy’s latest discoveries in
clean-burn technology.
SOURCE:
Gabriel Calzada; “Study of the Effects on Employment of Public Aid to Renewable Energy Sources,” Juan Carlos
University, Madrid; March, 2009.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. He is an environmental economist and was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global
Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years.
Readers may write him at PO Box 202, Churchville, VA 24421 or email to cgfi@hughes.net
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XII, 2010
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity