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Notable quotable

Posted by David Roberts at 10:38 PM on 26 Feb 2008

"I helped to pass legislation to begin a training program for green collar jobs. I want to see people throughout Ohio being trained to do the work that will put solar panels on roofs, install wind turbines, do geothermal, take advantage of biofuels, and I know that if we had put $5 billion into the stimulus package to really invest in the training and the tax incentives that would have created those jobs as the Democrats wanted, as I originally proposed, we would be on the way to creating those.

You know, take a country like Germany. They made a big bet on solar power. They have a smaller economy and population than ours. They've created several hundred thousand new jobs, and these are jobs that can't be outsourced. These are jobs that have to be done in Youngstown, in Dayton, in Cincinnati. These are jobs that we can create here with the right combination of tax incentives, training, and a commitment to following through. So I do think that at least 5 million jobs are fully capable of being produced within the next 10 years."

-- Hillary Clinton, Ohio Democratic presidential primary debate

Confusing goods and services

These job-creation claims need to be regarded with a pinch of salt. There seems to be a mantra among the renewable-electricity community -- part of their selling point to members of Congress -- that renewable-energy technologies equals jobs, jobs, jobs, and only American jobs.

The USA is part of a globalized world. While most of the labour to install wind turbines and solar cells will probably be locally procured, the same assumption does not hold for the hardware. There are several newly-industrialized countries that are entering the business of manufacturing solar cells, modules, associated electrical devices, and all sorts of components for wind turbines. In addition to selling to their own markets, they will be looking for opportunities to export.

That should be regarded (in my opinion) as a positive development. But it means, as well, that it is time to tone down the rhetoric that takes as its starting point that the renewable energy business is a strictly domestic affair.

These are only my personal opinions.

I see no problem

with labor and research jobs being green.

As for global production, well we need a global tracking system to ensure that the production remains green.

Time for the US to step up

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