Barone on Green Jobs

8 Comments »

1. they ARE being created-slowly & piecemeal!
   here in WA several private companies are investing in wind & biomass energy
   the largest wind farm, called “state line”, was put together by a coalition of private companies, public utilities, & the state government
   it sounds to me like some people just expect this “massive explosion” of jobs in that particular sector
   i say ANY sector of our economy takes time to create jobs-& with the economy the way it is right now…..*shrug*, it’ll take a couple years before we see any large “uptick” in the “green job” sector

   Comment by NARNC60AC — September 10, 2009 @ 10:17 am - September 10, 2009

2. There is money to be made in green jobs, and private investors are creating them. It’s just very small-scale. These are infant industries. And that’s just fine.

   Personally, I think Barone’s better quote is:

   But the idea that green jobs will replace all the lost carbon-emitting jobs is magical thinking.

   That’s closer to the ground truth. Green jobs are, and should be, a complement to “carbon-based” jobs (for lack of a better phrase). Perhaps someday green jobs will replace carbon jobs, but that day is much farther into the future than anyone cares to think. Green jobs are good, and a focus on sustainable living and sustainable economies is good, but it’s poppycock to think that we’re somehow going to just overhaul the world’s energy methods in less than a generation, or even that we should.

   Comment by Neptune — September 10, 2009 @ 10:40 am - September 10, 2009

3. “Who Killed The Electric Car?” is a real eye-opener about controlling consumer choice, market manipulation, planned obsolescence, politics, consumer shortsightedness and, yes, oil company interests and power. The losers are the consumers and the planet, but ironically, it may also be GM, which seems to be losing the competitive race to Toyota and Honda hybrids, in the consumer shift away from gas-guzzling Hummers towards more economical cars in the face of soaring gas prices. That EV car might be looking really good right now.
   Cate Marquis
   http://media.www.thecurrentonline.com/media/storage/paper304/news/2006/08/21/ArtsAndEntertainment/Documentary.Asks.What.Happened.To.The.Electric.Car-2236684.shtml

   It is amazing how much pressure is placed on ‘muting’ the green jobs movement.

   Look at how many cities ripped up transit options only to be replaced with highways and now those same cities are re-instating transit options.

   Comment by rusty — September 10, 2009 @ 10:48 am - September 10, 2009

4. “Who Killed The Electric Car?” is a real eye-opener about controlling consumer choice, market manipulation, planned obsolescence, politics, consumer shortsightedness and, yes, oil company interests and power.

   Or, in other words, a reiteration of liberals’ beliefs that all people are stupid and don’t know what’s good for them, all profits are evil, that the laws of physics can be suspended by liberal fiat, and that government needs to control what people buy so that it can control their behavior.

   What’s really funny is that rusty and his fellow liberals really think their blaming the oil companies constitutes an intellectual argument. The best example would be for a liberal like rusty to build an electric car cheaply and efficiently that is superior to a gasoline-powered model — just like he and his leftists claim they could do if the oil companies weren’t stopping them.

   Comment by North Dallas Thirty — September 10, 2009 @ 2:49 pm - September 10, 2009

5. NDT your much to young to take on the facade of curmudgeon.

   but maybe again, you are right, no one ever would consider the fact that fuel efficient cars would ever hit the market so soon.

   Comment by rusty — September 10, 2009 @ 5:10 pm - September 10, 2009

6. There is money to be made. You just need to start an investment firm with Al Gore and get him to scare the bejesus out of people about global warming. HELLO!!!

   Comment by Tim — September 10, 2009 @ 5:27 pm - September 10, 2009

7. If there were money to be made in green jobs, private investors would be creating them already.

   Democrats dont make money, they dont have the faintest clue how. Democrats steal other peoples money.

   Look who they are! Their biggest constituencies are Union leaders who get their living from dues that the law forces others to pay to them; trial lawyers who sue people for a living, government bureaucrats whose existence also is due to laws forcing people to give them money; felons; and unemployed kids and Acorn thugs.

   Comment by American Elephant — September 11, 2009 @ 6:02 am - September 11, 2009

8. #1. I live in WA state, and those “green jobs” are not making money, they are LOSING money which is why they have to be subsidized by the taxpayer.

   Comment by American Elephant — September 15, 2009 @ 2:34 am - September 15, 2009

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