Soaking up green - Opinion - ReviewJournal.com

Soaking up green - Opinion - ReviewJournal.com
EDITORIAL
Posted: Mar. 10, 2011 2:02 a.m.
So-called "green" energy is all the rage in Washington. But as the federal government spends billions of dollars a year to encourage the development of solar, wind or other politically correct power sources, not all observers whistle and applaud.

"Forcing green energy on the market (is) much, much more expensive" than allowing private power companies to simply buy the cheapest sources available, writes Kenneth P. Green, an environmental scientist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, in his new article, "The Myth of Green Energy Jobs: The European Experience."
"Using Spain as a model, when you do the math, you realize that creating 3 million new green jobs could cost $2.25 trillion" -- nearly a million tax dollars apiece for jobs that are likely to go away as soon as the government subsidies end.

"Green programs in Spain destroyed 2.2 jobs for every green job created, while the capital needed for one green job in Italy could create almost five jobs in the general economy," Mr. Green writes. "Countries are cutting these programs because they realize they aren't sustainable and they are obscenely expensive."

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