Posted on 09/02/2009 1:05:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The Energy Department fired back at a Spanish university study that found government subsidies to support renewable energy development in that country actually cost jobs.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory said the report from King Juan Carlos University in Madrid uses flawed methodologies and fails to account for the export potential of new green technologies and other positive economic impacts of government renewable-energy subsidies.
“The primary conclusion made by the authors — policy support of renewable energy results in net jobs losses — is not supported by their work,” the NREL concludes in a response released last month.
The debate over jobs has emerged as a critical component in the larger fight over the climate bill. Critics of the cap-and-trade proposal have used the report from King Juan Carlos University to attack the administration’s contention that the legislation will not only protect the environment but will boost the economy and create thousands of new green jobs.
The report found that two jobs are lost for every one job created through government subsidies to support renewable energy. Author Gabriel Calzada argued that the resources spent to support renewable energy crowd out private investment elsewhere in the economy.
Conservative commentators like Glenn Beck of Fox News and Republican members of the House have used the study to attack the administration’s claims the climate bill will create jobs.
But NREL’s response said the Juan Carlos report is overly simplistic, uses old jobs data, and fails to support its own conclusions.
“There is no justification given for the assumption that government spending (e.g., tax credits or subsidies) would force out private investment. This assumption is fundamental to the conclusion that Spain’s renewable energy policy has resulted in job loss,” the NREL says.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
We can end our “oil addiction”. Turn to Natural Gas as a primary fuel for transportation purposes and power generation (for peak demand periods), nuclear energy for baseline power production, at such level that the power plants are running at flat-out full capacity 24/7/365, and the unsubsidized production of liquid fuel from coal using the well-known Fischer-Tropf process (used by the Germans in WW 2 and the South Africans while they were under embargo in the 1980’s).
It doesn’t help growth. It doesn’t kill jobs because it damages the economy, therefore preventing the creation of jobs.
bookmark~Spain~energy studies
No jobs exploring for sunlight or wind.
No jobs drilling for sunlight, or mining the wind.
No jobs refining sunlight or wind.
No jobs transporting sunlight or wind.
No federal/state tax revenues (yet) for using sunlight or wind.
Far far fewer jobs operating solar/wind facilities than at gas/coal/nuke power plants.
Creating "Millions of 'Green Jobs'" is pie in the sky.
The Great Green Ruse
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