Op-Ed

[Dan Moadus]

Not only is the promise of "green jobs" just that, a promise, it is a promise that must take its place in line behind the many other promises (mostly broken) of this Administration. Additionally, it is a contrived promise. If there was a demand for solar panels and windmills, you can bet that industries would be popping up left and right creating these jobs.

The government could invest all the money it wants into building these devices, but if people still don't want them, the jobs will soon dry up. And its not that people wouldn't love to separate themselves from the electric companies by having their roofs covered with solar panels or installing a few windmills. It is just that we are a long way from renewable energy technologies that can compete dollar for dollar with fossil fuels. People simply are not going to switch to "renewable's" if it cost twice as much as conventional energy generation.

And here is where Cap and Trade comes in. In short, it's purpose is to drive up the cost of conventional energy high enough so people will consider moving to expensive renewable's. But, as is usually the case with government planners, they overlook the fact that thousands of jobs will be lost in the coal and oil industries which will dwarf the new jobs in the so called green sector.

[Towntalk]

For families all over Ohio, layoffs and business closings are immediate devastations that can't be placated by dreams of new green jobs. Bills have to be paid right now, and can't wait until some time in the future.

For others who are still working, there are the realities of fewer hours, wage cuts, and loss of benefits.

The unemployment rate surged to 9.7 percent in August, signaling that joblessness and financial anxiety were likely to endure in millions of American homes for many months. 217,000 net jobs were lost in August alone, and the White House warns that by the end of the year it will reach 10 percent or higher.

We can talk about green jobs till we're blue in the face, but that's not going to help families facing foreclosure right here and now, or medical emergencies with no health insurance, or a job.

The one thing that the advocates of green jobs fail to mention is the fact that hundreds of thousands of people will fall between the cracks before new green jobs could start up, and even then there is no carved in stone guarantee that these people would be put back to work. In the meantime it will be left to society to help them as best they can.

And what of those who are nearing the age of typical retirement? What is to happen to them? Would an employer hire a 55 to 60 year old when there are thousands of younger people looking for work?

Ninety five percent of the new green jobs would require job retraining, and no employer is going to invest the time and money job retraining would cost on workers that would retire in five years.

So how are we to deal with those who will not or cannot benefit by the "new jobs" that would be created at a date as yet unknown.