Red, Green, and Blue

Fox News, the champion of conservative politics, is at it again, this time railing President Barack Obama’s plan to create five million green jobs over the next 10 years. The argument is as follows: The European Union and California are at the forefront of creating green jobs, but each continues to see budget and job crises. And the European Union isn’t any closer to meeting its Kyoto target. Looking at these two places, why should we expect that Obama’s green jobs plan should be any more successful, especially in this time of recession?

The article quotes a conservative think tank, the Manhattan Institute, as saying that Obama’s plan to create green jobs – which range anywhere from top-level scientists to those involved in making homes more energy efficient – “is a political smokescreen designed to disguise the fact that his energy and environmental policies are going to be very costly.”

Short term costs for alternative and renewable energy are still really high, and nobody can afford that right now, the article continues. And the stimulus plan is more apt to give money to developing innovations in the green industry rather than industries – like coal and oil – that have proven to be profitable and to create jobs.

>>Read more about green jobs at Green Options

Though the article takes into account some renewable energy companies like Suzlon Wind Energy in Chicago and a wind turbine manufacturer in Colorado that will see increases in jobs this year, it ends with a chilling reminder of our economic times:

“But if one thing can be learned from the examples in Europe and California , it is that the Obama administration might want to make sure to be absolutely clear on the costs of going green.”

I see a valid point in the idea that the creation of green jobs will take employees away from traditional energy industries like coal and oil in the short term. So maybe it’s not the right time to be so experimental. But do we really have a choice right now? Every other industry seems to be failing right now – it’s probably wise to take a chance with the environment and use it to further the economy. I look outside and see litter on the streets every day and hear reports of deforestation farther away in the world. It seems like now is the time to create a corps of workers like that which was made in the New Deal days, but this time to install windmills and plant trees.

Photo Credit: Ario-j at Flickr under a Creative Commons License

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