Green-Job Initiative’s Broken Promises

[Geee]

Human Events:

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California’s anti-global-warming law (AB 32) in 2006, he did so amid fanfare over a predicted boom in “green jobs.” Gov. Jerry Brown likewise has used the promise of an emerging low-pollution economy to ameliorate fears over the loss of traditional jobs as “cap-and-trade” policies boost costs for the state’s businesses.

 

Green jobs have been growing rapidly percentage-wise, but that’s mainly a function of the tiny size of this sector. Fortune magazine reported on a “big spike” of 9,800 green jobs nationwide over three months — but that’s still a pittance in a nation of 320 million people. California didn’t top that list.

 

This slow performance explains the recent brouhaha over an Associated Press report about the failure of 2012’s Proposition 39 to live up to its goals. The “Clean Energy Jobs Act” – which closed a corporate tax loophole and diverted the extra revenue to green-energy projects in public schools — claimed it would create 11,000 jobs a year.

“Money is trickling in at a slower-than-anticipated rate, and more than half of the $297 million given to schools so far has gone to consultants and energy auditors,” according to AP. “The board created to oversee the project and submit annual progress reports to the Legislature has never met … .”

[Valin]

The Green Energy Scam Exposed by . . . Berkeley!?!

Steven Hayward

August 28, 2015

 

The Energy Institute at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley has posted a working paper entitled “The Distributional Effects of U.S. Clean Energy Tax Credits.” The paper is a devastating indictment of who’s getting Cecil the Lion’s share of the tax credits. If this were any other cause than “green energy,” the Left would be screaming about the redistribution of income from the middle class to the upper class.

 

Here’s the complete abstract:

 

 

Since 2006, U.S. households have received more than $18 billion in federal income tax credits for weatherizing their homes, installing solar panels, buying hybrid and electric vehicles, and other “clean energy” investments. We use tax return data to examine the socioeconomic characteristics of program recipients. We find that these tax expenditures have gone predominantly to higher-income Americans. The bottom three income quintiles have received about 10% of all credits, while the top quintile has received about 60%. The most extreme is the program aimed at electric vehicles, where we find that the top income quintile has received about 90% of all credits. By comparing to previous work on the distributional consequences of pricing greenhouse gas emissions, we conclude that tax credits are likely to be much less attractive on distributional grounds than market mechanisms to reduce GHGs.

 

 

Ok Anyone who is shocked at this....go stand in the corner.