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A Dash of Pepper

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Green jobs?

What Green jobs?

By SHEILAH PEPPER

The Gazette Staff

Over the past several years, the myth of "green jobs" has spread through all levels of government, here and in Europe.

I saw a television segment about a small town in Germany near the Baltic Sea. Windmills cluttered the landscape. The town was touted as being powered by wind power. However, it turned out, that despite a large number of windmills, barely 20 percent of the town was powered by the wind.

In Spain, a highly acclaimed economist has reported that the push for so-called green jobs has cost soaring job losses. Still, for some, the chimera of green jobs persists and here, the taxpayer is paying big time.

"Green energy", as an industry, simply does not exist. Wind and solar can augment supplies in a modest way. They cannot replace current fossil sources. Perhaps off in the future, other useful alternates will be discovered but that is decades away.

The House Budget Committee has published a superb report on the green boondoggle. The following information is pulled from that report.

The president's promises of millions of jobs from green energy were simply outlandish. Yet the stimulus plan that was passed in 2009 included literally tens of billions of dollars in subsidies for various politically-favored green energy interests: $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy investments; a whopping $17 billion for the Department of Energy's energy efficiency and renewable energy programs; $2 billion for energy-efficient battery manufacturing and millions more for other 'clean' energy programs, for a shocking $80 billion total.

Since his inauguration, the President has often spoken of green energy as an "investment." However, the government is a terrible predictor of investments and should never be in the business of betting taxpayer money. Relative to the business world, the government's only role should be to foster and advance an environment that allows the markets to operate freely and the private sector to create jobs.

By seeking to pick winners and losers in a dynamic and diverse economy, the government-as-investor model distorts markets and wastes vast amounts of taxpayer money.

The Solyndra mess is one case in point. The firm received %35 million in the fall of 2009 even after repeated warnings from federal financial analysts. In the spring of 2010, it failed to complete its initial public offering after an independent audit questioned the ongoing viability of the firm. In the fall of 2010, it closed one of its manufacturing facilities and laid off 180 workers. Finally, the firm declared bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 employees just 12 months after Obama visited the site.

But Solyndra is just the tip of the iceberg. Beacon Power received a $43 million loan guarantee in July 2009. Since then, its stock value has dropped 90 percent. The firm is not in compliance with NASDAQ-listing requirements and has been delisted by the exchange.

Also, First Wind Holdings received a $117 million loan guarantee in March 2010. First Wind withdrew its initial public offering in October 2010 due to a lack of investor demand. According to The Boston Globe, "First Wind owes more than $500 million, loses money on a steady basis and reports a negative cash flow."

In the midst of all these failures, the DOE has been advertising additional loan guarantees. It announced a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to another solar company just one day after the FBI raided the Solyndra offices.

Liberals talk endlessly of subsidies to the oil, gas and coal industries. Combined together, these industries receive only a tiny fraction, about 3 percent of the amounts given out to seemingly non-existent wind and solar companies.

It's a terrible fraud. The administration and its political donors are the perpetrators and the taxpayers are the victims.

Copyright©2011SheilahPepper