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Green dreams of jobs bonanza dashed in California
American Thinker ^ | 08/18/2015 | Rick Moran

Posted on 08/18/2015 7:08:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Want a definition of a green boondoggle? This incredible report by the Associated Press tracking the three year program to tax corporations and give the money to schools for green energy projects - a ballot measure that promosed tens of thousands of new jobs - shows the total, abject failure of another green energy project.

Three years after California voters passed a ballot measure to raise taxes on corporations and generate clean energy jobs by funding energy-efficiency projects in schools, barely one-tenth of the promised jobs have been created, and the state has no comprehensive list to show how much work has been done or how much energy has been saved.

Money is trickling in at a slower-than-anticipated rate, and more than half of the $297 million given to schools so far has gone to consultants and energy auditors. The board created to oversee the project and submit annual progress reports to the Legislature has never met, according to a review by The Associated Press.

Voters in 2012 approved the Clean Energy Jobs Act by a large margin, closing a tax loophole for multistate corporations. The Legislature decided to send half the money to fund clean energy projects in schools, promising to generate more than 11,000 jobs each year.

Instead, only 1,700 jobs have been created in three years, raising concerns about whether the money is accomplishing what voters were promised.

I love the way AP tries to understate the disaster.

"Accountability boards that are rubber stamps are fairly common, but accountability boards that don't meet at all are a big problem," said Douglas Johnson, a state government expert at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California.

The State Energy Commission, which oversees Proposition 39 spending, could not provide any data about completed projects or calculate energy savings

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; greenjobs

1 posted on 08/18/2015 7:08:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I suspect that the money ended up in the right pockets and that is all that really matters to the pols.


2 posted on 08/18/2015 7:09:59 AM PDT by Truth29
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To: SeekAndFind

Green energy has been awesome for crony capitalists.
Most of whom recycle some of the dough to Democrats.

Similar to “Big Education”


3 posted on 08/18/2015 7:11:06 AM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: SeekAndFind

The only green jobs in California...are in the marijuana farming and distribution business.


4 posted on 08/18/2015 7:12:59 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: SeekAndFind

Clearly, they didn’t spend enough money to make this program successful. When are they going to learn?


5 posted on 08/18/2015 7:13:42 AM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
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To: SeekAndFind

They could have created more jobs just by giving 297 people a million dollars................


6 posted on 08/18/2015 7:15:06 AM PDT by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
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To: SeekAndFind; windcliff

And so much for us poor saps who voted against this nonsense....


7 posted on 08/18/2015 7:18:40 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: SeekAndFind

Nothing will change as long as politicians can give $50,000,000 in tax money away for $5,000 in campaign contributions.


8 posted on 08/18/2015 7:19:00 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
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To: SeekAndFind

So as in every Socialist plan from local, state or federal government, the consultants got the cash, and the taxpayer gets the shaft. Even the brain-washed, brain-dead Democrats in CA ought to recognize these government scams that reward the well connected.


9 posted on 08/18/2015 7:20:17 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: SeekAndFind

I’d really like to see evidence showing when, where, and how incentives like this have actually worked. Just a few of what must be countless examples, please... /s


10 posted on 08/18/2015 7:22:14 AM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe Senators Boxer and Feinstein can make available -more jobs saving minnows.


11 posted on 08/18/2015 7:27:32 AM PDT by Mr Apple (Dinesh DÂ’Souza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT9K2shh3qk)
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To: SeekAndFind

Fifty million dollars a year for consultants and auditors.


12 posted on 08/18/2015 7:30:39 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: blueunicorn6

Billions to the Iranians.....why?

I know off subject, I apologize, but really?

California has caused so many of its problems becuase of Green things.....


13 posted on 08/18/2015 7:40:43 AM PDT by Uversabound (Our Military past and present: Our Highest example of Brotherhood of Man & Doing God's Will)
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To: Truth29
I suspect that the money ended up in the right pockets and that is all that really matters to the pols.

Exactly. That's all "government" has become.

14 posted on 08/18/2015 7:47:31 AM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: SeekAndFind

Someone needs to put a proposition on the California ballot to repeal the law of gravity. Claim it will create new jobs. See how much it passes by.


15 posted on 08/18/2015 8:04:19 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind

Crony Marxism.


16 posted on 08/18/2015 8:37:20 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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