{"id":165515,"date":"2010-01-11T11:26:44","date_gmt":"2010-01-11T16:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/environmentalcapital\/2010\/01\/11\/green-jobs-blue-collar-or-white-coat\/"},"modified":"2010-01-11T11:26:44","modified_gmt":"2010-01-11T16:26:44","slug":"green-jobs-blue-collar-or-white-coat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/165515","title":{"rendered":"Green Jobs: Blue-Collar or White Coat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea that America\u0092s clean-energy push has become, first and foremost, a jobs push is now indisputable. The White House announcement<\/a> Friday of an additional $2.3 billion in clean-energy manufacturing tax credits was specifically touted as a vehicle for jobs creation first and a way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, second.<\/p>\n

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Associated Press<\/dd>\n
President Obama unveils his latest green jobs push last Friday<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

The link between jobs and energy has been with Team Obama since the presidential campaign; and given the recession and 10% unemployment, it\u0092s probably the only way to advance environmental legislation at all, as Jeff Ball notes today<\/a> in The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u0092t mean there\u0092s not plenty to be wary about in the latest White House announcement. <\/p>\n

For starters, the $2.3 billion is expected to help create about 17,000 jobs. That works out to roughly $135,000 per job\u0097and remember<\/a>, a \u0093job\u0094 is defined as one year of employment. (To be fair, private-sector clean-energy job-creation may not be a lot cheaper. The White House estimates the new tax credits will spur an additional $5.4 billion in private investment, creating 41,000 jobs at a cost of $131,000 a head.)<\/p>\n

The latest green-jobs push is also confusing in its timing. Some of the projects eligible for tax credits, the White House notes, are already up and running\u0097suggesting they don\u0092t necessarily need federal money to make a go of things. Other projects that won\u0092t be completed until 2013 are also eligible for the tax credits\u0097hardly a short-term stimulus to tackle double-digit unemployment.<\/p>\n

But the bigger question, it seems, is whether clean-tech manufacturing is really the best way for America to jump on the green bandwagon. Manufacturing jobs in all sectors have for decades been fleeing to countries with lower costs for labor, energy, and raw materials. Why should clean energy be any different?<\/p>\n

China, for instance, in the space of a few years has become a global leader in the manufacture of equipment for solar- and wind-power. It\u0092s also making heady inroads in other areas, from batteries for electric cars to gear for the smart grid. <\/p>\n

Granted, Chinese equipment still faces plenty of technological challenges. The country is a huge producer of wind turbines, for example, but has yet to start exporting them at a large scale. <\/p>\n

But even Tom Friedman, a tireless cheerleader for a clean-energy revolution in the U.S., recognizes that America isn\u0092t going to win a workshop battle with China to build clean-tech gear. Instead, he envisions a partnership<\/a>, \u0093with the U.S. specializing in energy research and innovation, at which China is still weak, as well as in venture investing and servicing of new clean technologies, and with China specializing in mass production.\u0094<\/p>\n

Which raises the question: Should the billions being poured into American factories be steered toward American laboratories instead?<\/p>\n

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The idea that America\u0092s clean-energy push has become, first and foremost, a jobs push is now indisputable. The White House announcement Friday of an additional $2.3 billion in clean-energy manufacturing tax credits was specifically touted as a vehicle for jobs creation first and a way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, second. Associated Press President Obama unveils […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":761,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/761"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}