Obama's Green Jobs Plan: "An Ideological Illusion"

Posted by Brittany Stepniak - Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Perhaps in a perfect world, green jobs would be an end-all solution to the energy crisis and the joblessness crisis in the United States. In the real world, that's simply not the case...

The green jobs movement is still a little too ambitious for our own good.

The good news is that Obama definitely got one thing right: focusing on domestic energy production here at home rather than relying on overseas sources is the best path to prosperity with increased potential to create thousands of new jobs.

In fact, The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released information indicating that the oil and gas industries currently employ 440,000 American workers – that's an impressive 80% increase since 2003 when 200,000 Americans worked in the field.

The truth is, without the oil industry millions of jobs would be lost. Of all industries in this country, the oil and natural gas industry are bustling and thriving the best, bringing in great fortune. Oil boomtowns are popping up like springtime flowers in full bloom throughout the U.S., turning simple small-town economies into some of the most successful towns in America.

For example, the state of North Dakota now has the nation's lowest jobless rate – 3.5% at the moment. ND pumps approximately 440,000 barrels of oil each day, four times the amount created just five years ago in 2006.

In another example, Pennsylvania has benefited considerably on account of the Marcellus shale formation which created 18,000 jobs in the first half of this year. Now, roughly 214,000 jobs have ties to an industry that scarcely existed there ten years prior to Pennsylvania's new oil boom. 

Ohio, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas are among other states of interest for some of today's top-producing energy firms.

One big fat problem will challenge the success-potential for these states: drilling restrictions.

Yet earlier this month the Interior Department released a new five-year plan that puts most of the Outer Continental Shelf off-limits for oil drilling. And the Administration has delayed for at least another year the Keystone XL pipeline that is shovel-ready to create 20,000 new direct, pipeline-related jobs.

The Office of Natural Resources Revenue recently noted that federal revenue from offshore bonus bids (from lease sales) in fiscal 2011 was merely $36 million—down from $9.5 billion in fiscal 2008. The Obama Administration has managed the nearly impossible feat of turning energy policy into a money loser, pouring taxpayer dollars into green-energy busts like Solyndra. The Washington Post reported in September that Mr. Obama’s $38.6 billion green loan program had created a mere 3,500 jobs over two years. He had predicted it would “save or create” 65,000.

Right now, the green job movement poses a bit of a conundrum. What may be best for the environment may hinder economic progression.

Critics argue that this “idiotic energy policy” will do little more than “punish the middle class and the poor.”

The poor and middle class would suffer from skyrocketing energy bills as well. Green energy costs far surpass the cost of coal, oil, and natural gas; costing more than 35 cents extra each kilowatt hour. Take a look at the cost of solar energy compared to the other three sectors:

*Image courtesy of CapitolCommentary.com.

When looking at the big picture, Obama's priorities and policies seem far from maintainable, at least in this time of recession.

Surely we can re-visit these issues in the future when such policies can be made maintainable in order to truly make the green-energy vision a practical reality.

Perhaps the president may be better off tweaking some of these new green policies, focus on domestic fossil fuels to build up the economy, and slowly transition to green energy when the country can afford to do so. We simply can't spend billions and strip hundreds-of-thousands of jobs from the economy at the same time.

*Indented excerpts originally from the Wall Street Journal and re-posted at BlueCollarPhilosophy.com

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