A study by consultants Verso Economics Green Sector Costs More Jobs Than It Creates says 3.7 jobs were lost for every one created in the UK as a whole and that “whatever the environmental merits, we have shown that the case for green jobs just doesn’t stack up.”
Is this energy source the world’s biggest ever scam?
While the report, released by The Global Warming Policy Foundation think tank is UK-specific, its debunking of key warmist arguments for hugely expensive alternatives to coal, oil or nuclear in generating stable base load energy, are similar to concerns on the rise elsewhere in Europe.
Both temperate Portugal, now a European leader in alternative energies, and sunny Spain have committed millions of public subsidy to the greening of the Iberian peninsula, but now Dr Gabriel Calzada Alvarez of the Rey Juan Carlos University has concluded that for every “green job” created, “Spain destroyed 2.2 jobs in the real economy”.
His report is here and its executive summary could not be more damning: “Europe’s current policy and strategy for supporting the so-called “green jobs” or renewable energy dates back to 1997, and has become one of the principal justifications for U.S. “green jobs” proposals. Yet an examination of Europe’s experience reveals these policies to be terribly economically counter-productive. This study is important for several reasons. First is that the Spanish experience is considered a leading example to be followed by many policy advocates and politicians. This study marks the very first time a critical analysis of the actual performance and impact has been made. Most important, it demonstrates that the Spanish/EU-style “green jobs” agenda now being promoted in the U.S. in fact destroys jobs, detailing this in terms of jobs destroyed per job created and the net destruction per installed MW.”
The rebuttal of this report by the National Renewable Eenrgy Laboratory in the U.S. can be found here.
(H/T James Delingpole in London’s DailyTelegraph.)
Delingpole also notes that wind and solar power “have proved a disaster in Germany, Denmark and Spain … while wind turbines are so expensive that Holland recently became the first country in Europe to abandon its EU renewable energy target, saying it will slash its annual subsidy by billions of euros.”
Christopher Booker in the London Daily Mail writes February 28, 2011 about what he believes is possibly the most outrageous scam of our times: Why the £250 billion wind farm industry could be the greatest scam of our age.
In France where youth unemployment rose to 24.2% in Q3 2010 and the economy drifts in general Euroland misery, the government has been dramatically trimming subsidies for the greening industry in a bid to reallocate resources. This, despite the formerly fervent support expressed under its le Grenelle Environnement programme for alternative energies.
When the world finally wakes up to the vastly expensive con trick being pulled by eco-entrepreneurs, extremist environmental lobbies, dubious politicians and fellow travellers, let us hope the reckoning will be devastating.
See related reports here and here
