The Obama administration asserts that its big investments in "green energy" will create a large number of jobs. President Obama wants to "harness the power of alternative and renewable energy," to create "5 million new green jobs, good jobs that cannot be outsourced." The $58 billion on energy programs in the stimulus package is supposed by itself to foster over 450,000 new jobs.
The fact is that green energy subsidies lose as many jobs as they create. Spain is perhaps the most aggressive subsidizer of green energy of any country, especially on wind and solar. A new study from King Carlos University shows that for every green job created in Spain they lose 2.2 jobs in the industrial sector. That's mainly from increasing energy costs which cause energy intensive industries to move or close. Unemployment in Spain is nearing 20% despite its forests of towering turbines and acres of solar panels on the Costa del Sol.
The study notes that since 2000 Spain has spent $800,000 to create each green job.
US industry is developing renewable technology in solar, wind, algae biofuels, etc. with research support from the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. We don't need additional billions to prematurely implement technology that isn't ready for production and needs large taxpayer subsidies to be competitive.
Proven and competitive nuclear power and domestic natural gas have the capacity to replace much of our coal-burning electric power while greatly reducing harmful emissions. They can also provide the needed additional megawatts as electricity powers more of our transportation. Investing in those cost-competitive energy sources will create jobs.
