Despite Dems’ “Green” Rain Dance, Jobs Drought Continues

Democrats Seem to Think More Spending on “Green Jobs” Will Succeed Where the Stimulus Failed

• Offering yet another preview of Obama’s ever-pending jobs plan, Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday again sang the praises of the administration’s “green jobs” agenda.
• Despite its dependence on billions of dollars in stimulus spending, Democrats’ “green jobs” bluster has failed to live up to the hype. Few jobs have been created as a result of the push, even in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hometown.
• Rather than admit the failure of their strategy, Democrats have bent over backwards to try to identify green jobs success stories—so much so that that they have taken to touting companies that are creating jobs in China while taking stimulus money.

BACKGROUND 

Offering yet another preview of Obama’s ever-pending jobs plan, Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday once again sang the praises of the administration’s “green jobs” agenda:

BIDEN DOUBLES DOWN ON “GREEN JOBS”: “Biden said the nation is already trailing China and Germany in green technology. It will trade its dependence on foreign oil for a dependence on foreign clean energy technology if its leaders don’t act to help fledging green researchers and businesses, he said.

“ ‘If we shrink from deciding whether we are going to lead in the area of alternative energy, renewable energy, then we will be making the biggest mistake that this nation has made in its history,’ Biden said during his keynote speech at the fourth-annual National Clean Energy Summit at the Aria hotel-casino.” (Cristina Silva, “Biden Calls for New Clean Energy Policy for U.S.,” Associated Press, 8/30/2011)

ENERGY SECRETARY STEPHEN CHU JOINS IN: WE NEED MORE “NATIONAL INVESTMENTS” IN GREEN JOBS “DURING TIME OF DISTRESS”…NEVER MIND IT HASN’T WORKED SO FAR: “Chu said oil prices will increase while green energy will become cheaper in the future. … ‘It’s part of American heritage to make national investments during time of distress,’ he said.” (Cristina Silva, “Biden Calls for New Clean Energy Policy for U.S.,” Associated Press, 8/30/2011)

Despite its dependence on billions of dollars in stimulus spending, Democrats’ “green jobs” bluster has failed to live up to the hype. Few jobs have been created as a result of the push, even in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hometown: 

EPA’S ESTIMATE OF GREEN JOBS “CREATED OR RETAINED” BY STIMULUS SHRINKS TO JUST 7,140 JOBS. THE PRICETAG? $1 MILLION PER JOB AND $7.2 BILLION DOWN THE DRAIN. “President Obama’s green jobs agenda has become a victim of its own red tape. Several internal reports show that state-level projects have stalled for years due to federal regulations favored by labor and green groups — big boosters of the green jobs push.

“The reports offer a peek into the dysfunction within the White House’s green jobs initiative. In 2009, Obama dedicated $7.2 billion of stimulus funds to build “clean tech” jobs. He vowed to create 5 million jobs over the next decade.

“So far, that effort has ‘created or retained’ just 7,140 jobs, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s about $1 million per job. The number is actually down from last year, when the EPA claimed 16,605 green jobs.” (Sean Higgins, “Davis-Bacon Clogs Green Jobs,” Investor’s Business Daily, 8/30/2011)

VOTERS IN HARRY REID’S HOMETOWN OF SEARCHLIGHT, NV SAY GREEN JOBS ARE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. “So what do Nevadans think? Interviews with about two dozen voters in Searchlight, Las Vegas, and the key swing city of Henderson yielded remarkably similar responses: The clean-energy boom may have brought a sliver of new jobs, but nowhere near what’s needed to restore Nevada’s staggering economy. 

“ ‘Name one person in this town who has a job in the solar industry,’ said Tim Williams, a bartender at the Searchlight Nugget, where Reid is a regular when he’s in town. A dozen patrons shook their heads. ‘I don’t think clean energy is a bad thing, but it’s not bringing us any jobs,’ said Williams, describing himself as a Democrat…” (Coral Davenport, “Promise of Jobs from Solar, Wind Power a Hard Sell in Desert,”National Journal, 8/29/2011) 

“NUMBER OF GREEN JOBS FAILS TO LIVE UP TO PROMISES,” EVEN IN PELOSI’S BACKYARD: “In the Bay Area as in much of the country, the green economy is not proving to be the job-creation engine that many politicians envisioned. President Obama once pledged to create five million green jobs over 10 years. Gov. Jerry Brown promised 500,000 clean-technology jobs statewide by the end of the decade. But the results so far suggest such numbers are a pipe dream.” (Aaron Glantz, “Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises,” The New York Times, 8/18/2011) 

“EFFORTS TO STIMULATE CREATION OF GREEN JOBS HAVE LARGELY FAILED, GOVERNMENT RECORDS SHOW.” “Federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed, government records show. Two years after it was awarded $186 million in federal stimulus money to weatherize drafty homes, California has spent only a little over half that sum and has so far created the equivalent of just 538 full-time jobs in the last quarter, according to the State Department of Community Services and Development.

“The weatherization program was initially delayed for seven months while the federal Department of Labor determined prevailing wage standards for the industry. Even after that issue was resolved, the program never really caught on.”(Aaron Glantz, “Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises,” The New York Times, 8/18/2011)

STUDY BY LEFT-LEANING BROOKINGS INSTITUTION FOUND GREEN JOBS “ACCOUNTED FOR JUST 2 PERCENT OF EMPLOYMENT NATIONWIDE.” “A study released in July by the non-partisan Brookings Institution found clean-technology jobs accounted for just 2 percent of employment nationwide and only slightly more — 2.2 percent — in Silicon Valley. Rather than adding jobs, the study found, the sector actually lost 492 positions from 2003 to 2010 in the South Bay, where the unemployment rate in June was 10.5 percent.” (Aaron Glantz, “Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises,” The New York Times, 8/18/2011) 

Rather than admit the failure of their strategy, Democrats have bent over backwards to try to identify green jobs success stories—so much so that that they have taken to touting companies that are creating jobs in China while taking stimulus money: 

RECENT OBAMA “GREEN JOBS” PUSH SHOWCASED COMPANY WITH MORE THAN 50 PERCENT OF ITS EMPLOYEES IN CHINA: “President Barack Obama will visit the North Carolina-based Cree LED Light Company Monday to tour the plant and meet with his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness to discuss job creation and policies to spur economic growth.

“But Cree, a major recipient of Recovery Act funds, may be sending that money straight to China. At the very least, its CEO, Chuck Swoboda, has a very China-centered strategy that involves building a new plant overseas…

“Then in late 2010, the company opened its first plant in Huizhou City,China. That made Cree the first global LED company to locate a manufacturing plant in China.

“But that plant is only beginning of an expansion in China, says Swoboda. At the opening of the plant, Swoboda boasted that more than 50 percent of Cree’s employees live and work in China.” (Amanda Carey, “Obama Discusses Jobs at Company Shifting Focus to China,” The Daily Caller, 6/13/2011)

GREEN JOBS BOONDOGGLE CONTINUES AS SOLAR COMPANY SHUTS DOWN, CITING INABILITY TO COMPETE WITH CHINA: “Evergreen Solar Inc., once a darling of the U.S. solar industry, filed for bankruptcy protection this week, saying it couldn’t compete with Chinese competitors without a reorganization—a sign of the difficulty in creating ‘green’ U.S. manufacturing jobs amid bruising competition across the globe.” (Russell Gold, “Overrun by Chinese Rivals, U.S. Solar Company Falters,” The Wall Street Journal, 8/16/2011)