Dec 30 2008
State-Based Hot Air
From the DC Examiner:
Many states have adopted Climate Action Plans (CAPs) that limit greenhouse gases by 2020, and nearly identical plans are advancing rapidly toward approval in other states.
But according to a peer-reviewed study of the Maryland CAP by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Massachusetts – an economics think tank – these cookie-cutter proposals are “seriously flawed” for multiple reasons. If implemented, the plans could take other states down the same road California is already traveling. Anti-business policies that were often justified mainly on environmental grounds, have cost Californians dearly. Millions of jobs fled to lower tax neighbors like Nevada and Arizona, the state’s 8.4 percent unemployment rate rivals Michigan’s, and political gridlock over a $40 billion budget deficit could leave California bankrupt early in 2009.
This is important information. It is wealth that enables us to pay for a better environment. While it is true to say that there are more and less environmentally-friendly ways to create that wealth, it nonetheless remains true that if you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs you won’t have the resources to pay for environmental improvements–from when goods are produced to when consumers buy products to sustain their living standards.
Here we go again. We are at the start of an economic revolution. Labor and environmentalists are coming together to change our economy forever. These new green jobs, spurred by a cap on carbon emissions, will make us energy independent and put millions of people to work. Mark my words.
If the millions that the Government has and will spend on alternative energy would have been spent on developing our own natural resources we would be energy independent today. Plus the fact unemployment would be down(for those that are not afraid to get their hands a little dirty).
Two postings claim that “green jobs” will more than replace traditional ones — wonder where they get their data? The only study that has come out on this topic so far is from the Spanish government, which found that their country lost 2.2 jobs for every green job created. The problem with so-called alternative energy sources is that they cost much more than conventional sources — and this means that they consume more energy than they produce.