'Last year's roughneck can be next year's green hero, only at half pay'

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), the House Energy and Commerce Committee's ranking minority member, after Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and other committee Democrats released a clean energy legislation draft on Mar. 31 which includes proposals for a cap-and-trade program:

"Cap-and-traders respond to the prospect of economic dislocations by saying that lost jobs, especially those grimy old-energy jobs, will be replaced by socially correct, environmentally desirable green jobs. A closer look explains why there won't be much interest in switching from the old jobs to the new ones among people who depend on a paycheck to pay the rent and buy shoes for their kids.

"According to a University of Massachusetts study and data from the [US] Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national average estimate of the green occupation wage is $20/hour ($41,114 per annum) compared with an average oil and gas industry exploration and production wage of $45/hour ($93,575 per annum).

"New jobs associated with increasing domestic oil and gas supplies are estimated to pay more than twice as much as jobs associated with green investment. It's not hard to guess which line of work most people would choose, especially if they didn't have the foresight to be born into money.

"So it's a serious concern that last year's roughneck can be next year's green hero, only at half pay. But I also wonder if we aren't surrounded by green jobs and don't know it yet. Will last year's hardware clerk be next year's green crusader just by selling the same low-flow showerheads and [compact fluorescent lamps]?"

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected]