Green Jobs

Yesterday, the media mindlessly parroted the findings of a report by the Conservation Foundation that investing in "green energy" would produce millions of jobs. I've always been a bit sceptical of the logic that using more expensive modes of energy makes us wealthier, but a report from the Spanish government which has championed solar and wind power over a decade just shows what a mess it makes of the economy.

From pajamas media:

The government report does not expressly confirm the highest-profile finding of the non-governmental report: that Spain’s “green economy” program cost the country 2.2 jobs for every job “created” by the state. However, the figures published in the government document indicate they arrived at a job-loss number even worse than the 2.2 figure from the independent study.

Get that: every job produced by so-called green jobs costs 2.2 jobs elsewhere in the economy. This in the country where the subsidies for feeding solar power into the grid are big enough to make running diesel generators at night a profitable venture.