Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
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The NYT recently decided to see just how good the Obama green jobs plan turned out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/us/19bcgreen.html
Largely failed? If this had been anyone but Obama, and the NYT had not spent the last 3 years telling us that any and all criticism of Obama is racism, they would call this a turd sandwich.
A study released in July by the non-partisan Brookings Institution found clean-technology jobs accounted for just 2 percent of employment nationwide and only slightly more 2.2 percent in Silicon Valley. Rather than adding jobs, the study found, the sector actually lost 492 positions from 2003 to 2010 in the South Bay, where the unemployment rate in June was 10.5 percent.
Federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed, government records show. Two years after it was awarded $186 million in federal stimulus money to weatherize drafty homes, California has spent only a little over half that sum and has so far created the equivalent of just 538 full-time jobs in the last quarter, according to the State Department of Community Services and Development.
The weatherization program was initially delayed for seven months while the federal Department of Labor determined prevailing wage standards for the industry. Even after that issue was resolved, the program never really caught on as homeowners balked at the upfront costs.
Companies and public policy officials really overestimated how much consumers care about energy efficiency, said Sheeraz Haji, chief executive of the Cleantech Group, a market research firm. People care about their wallet and the comfort of their home, but its not a sexy thing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/us/19bcgreen.html
Largely failed? If this had been anyone but Obama, and the NYT had not spent the last 3 years telling us that any and all criticism of Obama is racism, they would call this a turd sandwich.