Comments on: Green policies in California created 1.5 million jobs

By: John Mashey

John Mashey — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:14:04 +0000

For future reference, I recommend Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations 2008, going on right now in Redwood Shores, CA. They do these yearly ajnd they have lots of interesting speakers. Among other good speakers, today we had: Jim Davis, President of Chevron Energy Solutions, a branch of Chevron that does energy efficiency and sustainable energy supplies, and whose business is worth looking at. Of course, Chevron is based in California, which is, after all, an oil state. Michael Peavey, President of the Cailfornia PUC. Smart folks. They said the same things as in Joe's post.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:29:47 +0000

Not sure I understand the real lesson from this report. California’s unemployment rate is significantly higher than the U.S. average — is that because of their energy policies? Perhaps California could succeed in employing more people if the state had fewer restrictions on energy?

When we say energy policies created an additional 1.5 million jobs, that’s ignoring the jobs that would have been created in absence of those policies, isn’t it? What’s the real alternative outcome? Are we to believe that if California had never instituted its energy policies, the unemployment rate today would be 16% instead of a “mere” 7.7%? Does that sound likely?

In reality I’m guessing the job market would pretty much have expanded to absorb all but about 7% of the labor force at any time anyway, no matter how the state tweaked energy policies.

By: Larry Coleman

Larry Coleman — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:02:15 +0000

This story – the economic upside of combating GW – is the most important idea that needs to be understood by the public and politicians…because people currently think just the opposite, which creates a high barrier against doing anything. It could be enormously useful, Joe, to have the facts and ideas in this post (and others) condensed into a document suitable for presenting to senators and representatives, and in op-ed pieces and talks. You are uniquely qualified to prepare such a document, which should include data in easy-to-read graphical form, and I – for one – would use it with politicians, op-eds and talks. This is a powerful story that needs to be widely understood if serious steps to combat GW are to be successful.