Green dreams dashed
www.pittsburghlive.com 19 December 2011
As the federal Energy Department blew billions of dollars on green-energy pipe dreams, the Labor Department shoveled away its share, too, dumping $162 million into so-called “green” jobs.
That is, for 1,336 people as of October.
That’s more than $121,000 per job created, reports Sean Higgins of Investor’s Business Daily, based on findings from Labor’s inspector general. The IG said millions of dollars in unspent funds should be returned to the Treasury.
“(T)here is no evidence that grantees will effectively use the funds and deliver targeted employment outcomes by the end of the grant periods,” the IG said.
That’s because the anticipated green jobs aren’t materializing, regardless of how much the Energy Department doled out in loan guarantees to companies like Solyndra, the solar-panel money pit that pocketed half a billion dollars before it went bankrupt.
And never mind the millions spent on states’ green-job training programs when there are no jobs to be had.
But in typically bureaucratic fashion, Labor’s Employment and Training Administration has said it intends to keep spending the balance of funds over the next two years, Mr. Higgins reports.
Government’s dreams of green are becoming taxpayers’ unending nightmare.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/12/20/green-dreams-dashed/