Posted on 11/24/2008 11:05:57 AM PST by thetru
The worldwide economic crisis is prompting a growing number of countries to back away from pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions and invest in clean energy, just a week before the start of talks in Poland on a new worldwide climate change treaty. In the United States, some business groups are calling on President-elect Barack Obama to move cautiously in tackling global warming, saying that a too aggressive response could prolong the economic downturn and cost jobs.
But a growing chorus of other businesses, environmentalists, and politicians are calling for a green-based economic recovery. An enormous federal government investment in clean technology would provide low-cost capital to accelerate energy efficiency, build massive renewable energy projects, and jumpstart a sustainable low-carbon economy, these groups say. Such a Green New Deal, woven into the economic stimulus package being crafted for early next year, could create millions of government-subsidized jobs and build a new energy infrastructure.
"It's a smart thing to do for the economy and a strategically wonderful thing to do for the environment," said David Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance, a partnership between the Sierra Club and United Steelworkers that works to develop green jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
“We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the military.
I'm wondering, is that before or after Barney Fwank's proposed 25% cut?
If “Green” were truly viable, the market would have done this 1,000-fold by now.
Money for nothin’ and the chicks are free!
Do you think they are backing away from the pledges because, err, uhh, umm, maybe they knew they were dumb in the first place?
Pay more in taxes to the gubbermint, so gubbermint scientists can pretend to control the weather. OK, got to ask — How dumb are you.
report to town square for morning calithenics in your Messiah suit and then report to the Trebant factory.
Indeed. Excerpt of Obama’s “10 year plan” (Where have I heard of 10-year plans before....?):
Invest In A Clean Energy Economy And Create 5 Million New Green Jobs: Obama and Biden will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, invest in low emissions coal plants, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid. The plan will also invest in America’s highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers to ensure that American workers have the skills and tools they need to pioneer the first wave of green technologies that will be in high demand throughout the world.
... as soon as someone brings in a ManBearPig ... alive!
Red and green make brown. Here comes the sh*t.
create millions of government-subsidized jobs
David Foster, a long-time labor leader, spent 16 years organizing workers in the western United States before taking the reigns at Blue Green.
Well, I do agree that there are trillions of dollars to be made worldwide by amazing new alternative energy and green technology, and that this is something like the internet where the US private sector could create a ton of new jobs early on while other countries play catch up (and it is still “early on” in green tech). I’m not even opposed to government funding in some way for this— the internet was a government creation, via DARPA. It would have to be done the right way, though, since bureaucracies tend to screw things up, so people could petition for grants based on reviewed proposals or something.
but...but...but...we won’t see any potential benefits for 10 YEARS!!!
</end Democrat drilling logic>
Why do I suspect that this "chorus" is really a duet?............
Are unions much different that “community organizers”?
...and it could capture starlight and moonlight, so that it worked at night...Hey, that guy (or small startup company) would be richer than Bill Gates in a year.
It's amazing that all these green folk bleating about some magic green bullet economy that can provide full employment for decades, along with zero emissions (Don't we have to actualy MANUFACTURE these things, or ship them from factories to people???) are the very same people who have never in their lives been with a tinker's damn at math, or science, or engineering, or economics, or business, or...
Yeah, the backpedalling is amazing — claiming that all the “Change” will take more time. I’m guessing that Axelrod has advised Obama to focus more on the Hope thing now that he won...
I’m also wondering how Obama/Biden will do this over ten years, given that his term only extends for 4, with a possible second term making 8....
The green lead genocide of good business people goes on, all in the guise of favoritism and taxes and breaks.
The world cheers as the US engine is being taken appart piece by piece and sent overseas. Not enough we lose our freedoms, we got to be also the foreigners’ butt boys.
They knew all along not to go with this. It was a trick to trap and trip the US into pledges while the rest of the world would never follow it.
We’ve become weak and wobbly twisted.
Agree. IMO, tax credits for alternative energy R&D are the way to go, not government grants. Government grants will inevitably go to where they will do the most political good. You know, if a certain Democrat in a tightly contested race needs some help, Obama's energy dept can send a nice grant for a few million dollars, so that his Democratic compadre can stand in front of the TV cameras and make a speech about how "hard he worked to get this money" and thereby get a few hundred or thousand more votes.
Politicians love to be able to control grant money and steer it to where they need some help. I guess sometimes some good comes out of the process, but its not a terribly efficient use of tax dollars, IMO.
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