Remember not that long ago when Obama and Gore were touting Spain for all their progress with wind and solar? Heard much about Spain lately? Right, they are broke and the green program helped get them there. The Spanish government subsidized the building of the wind and solar and now they are subsidizing the cost of the power which consumers can’t afford. The green jobs are gone and the green reality is all that remains. Along with the bills the government can’t pay. When you think about green jobs be sure to think about Spain. Spain has one best shot to recover. They can sell and install wind and solar for America while we go down the road of ruin for Spain.
Here’s a classic example. The LA school, district, second largest in this country, is broke. They are laying off teachers as fast as the union will allow. Not fast, of course. They are cutting costs to the bone, excluding school district consolidation, the biggest opportunity for cost reduction. They are cutting programs, excluding Spanish, of course. The teachers, the administrators, and the parents are up in arms. Protests and all that goes with reducing entitlements.
The week the LA School District announced they will spend $120 million to install solar panels in all the schools. This will save $5 million a year. A mere 25 year payback.
If you were broke and out of work would your first priority be to put solar panels on your roof to save on your power bill? If you were a business and you were struggling to survive the bad economy, would this be project one? If you were a corporation allocating scarce capital for projects, could you find paybacks better than 25 years?
Now the LA School District will have an all out battle on their hands. The all-powerful unions against the freak environmentalists who are totally detached from any economic reality. Who will win?
When Obama announced his only solutions to the oil leak in the Gulf was to stop all offshore drilling, he once against spoke of green jobs. Green jobs go back to Jimmy Carter, the worst president of my generation. Until now.
We watch Greece go broke with Nationalized Medicine. We watch Massachusetts going broke with Romneycare. Still, we follow a bad business model so we can pursue going broke. We watch Spain deplete their national treasury to become the greenest of the green. No problem, we need to do the same. In all cases, the answer, we will do it better.
Want to see how good the government is at doing things, watch the oil spill. The Federal Government is totally clueless about what to do. All they can do is point fingers and pontificate. Just like Katrina. And, like the next big disaster.
Still, the president who can’t begin to try any plan to fix the leak wants to bulk up the government and control everything in your life. If they get power, we see decisions like the LA School District is making on solar panels. Bud judgment made to appease the few who control the power. Dreamers, just like Jimmy Carter.