We should study what the Europeans are doing with regard to energy and the environment, and then generally do the opposite. Sadly, indications are that the Obama administration will ignore the accumulated evidence of Europe's energy failings and instead emulate some of the worst aspects of policies across the pond.
www.realclearpolitics.com...
Obama's green jobs plan suggests there is economic benefit to switching away from inexpensive to pricier renewable energy technologies. Obama pledged he would spend $150 billion on green technologies to create "five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced." The Euorpean experience shows otherwise.
Turns out there really is a downside to forcing the marketplace to shift to energy sources that are less economical than those currently used. Spain, which instituted a green jobs program a decade ago, found this out the hard way.
A study by researchers at King Juan Carlos University found that 2.2 jobs were destroyed for every green job created through government mechanisms, and those green jobs are rarely permanent.
Obama has touted the Spanish experience as a model for the United States, but the study's authors deem those policies "terribly economically counterproductive." Simply put, they wrote, "the Spanish/EU-style ‘green jobs' agenda now being promoted in the U.S. in fact destroys jobs." The study has been condemned by former President Bill Clinton and left-wing groups such as the Center for American Progress, a sign that its findings have touched a nerve in the United States.
Cap and trade has proven an even larger disaster in Europe, so why are we following their lead?
Emissions have soared in most industrialized European nations during the plan's first phase, in most cases more than in the United States during the same period. Moreover, cap-and-trade has led to substantial increases in electricity bills for European consumers, hindering economic growth.
Ironically, there is one European example worth following, but Obama will not acknowledge it. Nuclear power.
The French embraced nuclear power several decades ago. It now produces nearly 80 percent of the country's electricity. France even exports to neighbors. As a result, France is insulated from the energy shocks manufactured by Kremlin autocrats threatening to cut off gas shipments in the dead of winter. France is as close to energy independent as any nation in Western Europe.
Q. Why don't we hear of these successes from Obama instead of the proven failures?
A. Efficiency and emissions are not his focus, so much as revenue and control are!
deny ignorance
jw
[edit on 2-6-2009 by jdub297]
