Given the job growth stats in this new report -- could it be the Reality is finally overtaking the GOP's usually dismissive rhetoric?
Just listen to these Republican Governors tout the merits of Green Energy Jobs, whenever they sprout up in their own states ... Rushing in to claim that "They did that."
RED, WHITE & GREEN: The True Colors of America’s Clean Tech Jobs (pdf)
DBL Investors
by Nancy Pfund and Michael Lazar -- Sept 2012
[...]
The governor is hoping to continue New Jersey’s rapid growth in the sector, with his office proudly boasting of each new milestone it reaches. Last July, for example, he issued a statement bragging of how New Jersey had become the second-largest solar market in the U.S., behind only California.[17]
[...]
In part because of a business tax plan the governor unveiled earlier this year, the state is poised for a surge in green jobs over the next decade, according to the Louisiana Workforce Commission, with increases in green jobs far outpacing overall job growth.[21]
[...]
During his tenure as governor, Texas has dramatically grown its share of energy from wind; it represented about eight percent of the state’s energy production in 2010. Those working in wind energy in Texas are among the 140,000 with green jobs in the state, the third-largest clean tech workforce in the country.
[...]
Other efforts by the governor included a $75 million loan, along with tax and job training incentives, to lure solar startup Stion to the state.[7] He even crossed party lines, working with Terry McAuliffe, former Democratic National Committee chair, to relocate the manufacturing facilities of GreenTech Automotive, a Chinese joint-venture plant, from China to Mississippi -- in other words, in the opposite direction that manufacturing jobs usually flow.[8]
Green Jobs are a booming area of Job Growth in many Red States -- despite the often partisan rhetoric to the contrary.
A Job is a Job. Achieving 'Energy Independence' should be should be a National Goal -- as Jimmy Carter once identified as achievable by the year 2000. The cleaner the energy source the better. Without such goals, you never get there.
Economic Growth depends on Opportunity. Opportunity to build what does not yet exist. A lot of small businesses are jumping on it. And they are trying hard, not to let partisan agendas block their Entrepreneurial way ...
Green Jobs Growing Fastest in Red States
SustainableBusiness.com News -- 09/20/2012
The debate over green job growth in Washington is highly partisan, but red states that are home to decisively Republican or swing voters are growing those jobs the fastest, says a new report.
From 2003-2010, green jobs grew fastest in: Alaska (98% growth), Colorado (47%), Nebraska (49%), Nevada (48%), New Mexico (50%), North Carolina (49%), North Dakota (58%) and Wyoming (53%).
[...]
As of 2010, there were approximately 2.7 million US cleantech jobs, representing about 2.1% of the 130 million overall nonfarm payroll. That was up 27% from about 2.1 million reported in 2003.
Given the data, it isn't surprising that some Republican governors have broken ranks with the party's general hostility toward green jobs to launch supportive programs, including Haley Barbour (Mississippi), Sam Brownback (Kansas), Chris Christie (New Jersey), Bobby Jindal (Louisiana) and Rick Perry (Texas).
[...]
Here are the top 10 states, ranked by total green jobs as of 2010:
California (318,156)
New York (185,038)
Texas (144,081)
Pennsylvania (118,686)
Illinois (106,375)
Ohio (105,306)
Florida (102,967)
New Jersey (94,241)
Georgia (83,707)
Washington (83,676)
A Job is a Job. Whether it's putting up Wind Mills, or balancing loads on Smart Meters, or installing the
high-capacity Electric Grids of the future -- if it lowers the cost of energy, and lessens our carbon footprints on the planet -- such Jobs should
be heralded and celebrated and promoted by our leaders, and
not reflexively ridiculed.
Shoot, even Mitt Romney admitted (sort of) that he was "all in favor of green energy" -- as his preamble to slam the President's long-term investments in the same. I wonder if Mitt will ever be as critical of his own "business failures" -- not likely.
Fact-check: Half of fed-funded green companies bankrupt?
by David R. Baker, blog.sfgate.com -- Oct 4, 2012
[Mitt Romney: ]
“You put $90 billion into -- into green jobs. And I -- look, I’m all in favor of green energy. $90 billion, that would have -- that would have hired 2 million teachers. $90 billion. And these businesses, many of them have gone out of business, I think about half of them, of the ones have been invested in have gone out of business. A number of them happened to be owned by people who were contributors to your campaigns.”
[...] That $90 billion, for example, included $4 billion for smart grid projects, such as installing smart meters. So do you count all the big utilities that received money to install meters? (By the way, that doesn’t include Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which funded its $2.2 billion SmartMeter program through utility bills.) How about the companies that make the meters?
[...]
Romney, of course, is invoking the ghost of Solyndra, the Fremont solar panel maker that imploded last year after receiving $528 million in federal loans. [...]
There are 33 projects. By my count, three of the companies behind those projects have gone bankrupt -- Abound Solar, Beacon Power, and Solyndra.
Don't let "the Facts" get in the way of your Big Oil cheer-leading Mr. Romney -- remember the one-note chant goes like this:
"Drill Baby, Drill. Drill Baby, Drill."
Perhaps, if Mr Romney actually got his numbers from the Dept of Energy, instead of Paul Weyrich's (and now the Koch's) Billionaire Think-Tank, aka the Heritage Foundation -- perhaps then Mitt might understand, that when it comes to Small Business Start-ups-- it's those that "succeed" that is the number that actually matters ...
Romney’s $90 billion lie about green jobs and Solyndra
by Jeremy Bloom, redgreenandblue.org -- Oct 4, 2012
[...]
Romney appears to have get his "half have failed" claim by:
Taking the 12 assorted firms the Heritage Foundation listed that did fail.
Making an apples and oranges mixup with the 30 firms that got loan guarantees in the Solydra program (12 is almost half of 30, even though the two numbers have nothing to do with each other)
Finally, he mashed that into the full $90 billion clean energy stimulus program.
The facts:
The actual dollar amount that went to the loan guarantee program: $16.1 billion. Not $90 billion.
The actual number of failures: For the loan guarantee program, just 3, out of 30.
The actual cost to the taxpayer: Probably less than $2 billion by the time it’s all done. Not $45 billion.
And it was over 4 years, not one single year.
Just 3 out of 30 of the Clean Energy loan guarantees
have failed.
Or 27 out of 30 THAT have not failed. They have SUCCEEDED. They are employing Americans with the jobs of the future.
All at a taxpayer cost of less than $2 billion -- not the $45 billion "Solyndra price tag" that Mitt Romney has claimed. That Mitt Romney told the American people, as his final answer.
Of course IF the facts, or the future of American people actually mattered to Mitt Romney he wouldn't be making jokes about Climate Change; but rather he would follow the lead of his fellow Republican Governors, and realize that Green Energy Jobs, ARE the Jobs of the future. And that these 21st century Jobs are the key, to leaving a better world than we found it -- for future generations.
Climate Change impacts us all -- it is not a partisan issue. Or at least it shouldn't be, as our current Chief Executive well knows ...
[... Barack Obama: ]
And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet – because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat to our children’s future. And in this election, you can do something about it.
President Barack Obama's remarks as prepared for delivery,
Democratic National Convention
by
Transcripts Editors for Transcripts and Documents at the Daily Kos, Sep 06, 2012
It's not a Red America, or a Blue America -- it really should be a Green America ...
Our children’s future is depending on it. Depending on "Reality" once again becoming an acceptable political topic. Depending on the Science that they learned about in school, actually being acted upon -- in some long-term ways.
We owe them a Fact-based Future. ... And the Climate Change Clock is still ticking ... oblivious to the red or blue rhetoric, dancing around it.