Posted on 08/29/2011 3:35:40 PM PDT by tobyhill
A green jobs program in one of America's greenest cities is being called a bust 16 months after a $20 million federal grant to weatherize homes in Seattle ended up putting just 14 people to work in mostly administrative jobs and upgrading only three homes in the area.
"The jobs are not there," Todd Myers, who wrote the book "Eco Fads," told Fox News. "So we're training people for jobs that don't exist."
Seattle is not alone. The Department of Energy has allocated $508 million to 41 states for its Better Buildings Neighborhood Program and 600 jobs have been created or retained.
"While communities are advancing their programs at different rates, we are pleased with the progress," the agency wrote in a recent statement.
One year into the three-year program, 9,000 homes have had energy audits and received some kind of upgrade. The goal is to weatherize 150,000 homes by 2013 and save consumers $65 million annually on energy bills.
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn says it's too early to declare the program a failure.
"We may have to adjust how we market it and the incentives we provide," McGinn said. "Nobody has really cracked the green jobs code."
Contractors who do the energy audits and home retrofits blame government for getting in the way. To be a participating business in Seattle, the contractor is required to pay workers $21 an hour with full benefits, including retirement pay. But according to several small business owners in the area, the prevailing wage for new workers who lay insulation is $12. per hour.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“....one of America’s greenest cities...”
Might as well say “one of America’s stupidest cities”
Same damn thing.
The former mayor in Seattle banned beach fires due to global warming concerns. You have this nuclear furnace sitting out there 93 million miles from Earth - it’s like comparing a BB to a basket ball.
Bump.
Well, at least they got some posts out of the deal. I think paying over a million dollars per piece of wood is a little high, but heck, since they shut down logging to save the spotted loons, maybe the price has gone up.
The former mayor in Seattle banned beach fires due to global warming concerns
Oh , did they bring a cardboard cutout of a fire or was cardboard canned also ? LOL I bet the people a city hall meeting put out more gas than a few fires
Don’t worry.
These are EXACTLY the kinds of “jobs” the bamster is going to propose in his speech next week.
The economy will skyrocket after that speech, fo’ shizzle!
I think he banned firework shows too for the same reason but not sure. I always ask global warming people “What ended the last ice age?”
Spot on! Seattle is brain dead when it comes to just about anything. For all the liberal squealing about Obama coming up with a “jobs program”, this should be exhibit A. This isn’t the 1930’s. During the depression, people got paid by the government to actually DO something, like build dams and bridges. Today all of the cash we pony up is absorbed by administrators, union bosses, and environmental activist kooks. We’d be better off just cutting a $100,000 check to the so-called workers and leave the ruse of “creating jobs” alone.
We’re green from all the freaking rain we got this Fall/Winter/Spring/Summer cycle. Just finally started getting nice a few weeks ago. Moss and grass loves the gray, rainy wet days!
DEFUND socialist collectives, foreign and domestic.
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