Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Friday, May 29, 2009 10:55:39 AM
Here is a great article linked through
Instanpundit from Max Schultz in The American. He argues the point that Obama makes on following Europes model for green energy.
Obama is absolutely right that we can learn a lot from the European approach to energy. But he is dead wrong on what those lessons are. We should study what the Europeans are doing with regard to energy and the environment, and then generally do the opposite.
He goes on to make several great points. Here are a few.
Obama's green job promise:
Turns out there really is a downside to forcing the marketplace to shift to energy sources that are less economical than those currently used. Spain, which instituted a green jobs program a decade ago, found this out the hard way. A study by researchers at King Juan Carlos University found that 2.2 jobs were destroyed for every green job created through government mechanisms, and those green jobs are rarely permanent. Obama has touted the Spanish experience as a model for the United States, but the study’s authors deem those policies “terribly economically counterproductive.” Simply put, they wrote, “the Spanish/EU-style ‘green jobs’ agenda now being promoted in the U.S. in fact destroys jobs.” The study has been condemned by former President Bill Clinton and left-wing groups such as the Center for American Progress, a sign that its findings have touched a nerve in the United States.
Then we have the cap and trade business:
Far worse is Obamas proposal to institute a cap and trade regime to lower carbon dioxide emissions similar to the one European nations implemented earlier this decade. However commendable the goal may be, the evidence is clear that cap-and-trade is a monumental failure.
Emissions have soared in most industrialized European nations during the plan’s first phase, in most cases more than in the United States during the same period. Moreover, cap-and-trade has led to substantial increases in electricity bills for European consumers, hindering economic growth.
Only recently have emissions in European nations begun to drop. But that is hardly proof that cap-and-trade works. A global economic meltdown is responsible for falling emissions all over the planet, including in the United States, where no such system for curbing emissions yet exists. What the recent trends show is that there is a rough correlation between CO2 emissions and economic growth. Perhaps the only way to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions, it seems, is to put the brakes on prosperity.
He makes a good point at the end of the article about nuclear power. I have made my case many times here about why I am not a fan of nuclear power, at least not until we get a viable storage facility open. He does point out the hypocracy of Obama's position on that issue. Yet even using France's system of recycling the waste, there is still waste product left over, albeit less of it. But the fact remains, until we have somewhere to put the waste, nuclear power is a dumb idea. If you are going to have one, you must have the other.
Great article, read the whole thing.