Spain’s Green Jobs: The Opposite of a Boon

by Pearl Hahn

Obama’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, is currently endeavoring to develop green jobs under the belief that such an initiative will alleviate rising unemployment and the recession. Chu, a Nobel-prize-winning physicist, has been adamantabout his wish to fight global warming and advocates spending billions on alternative energy research and infrastructure, in addition to restricting greenhouse gas emissions.

Thus far, the administration has spent a massive amount of funds on subsidizing such new jobs.

Several nations in the EU have already started down this path with questionable results. Obama cites Spain as a leader in development of renewable energies and green jobs, but do Americans wish to follow the example of a nation whose unemployment rate is creeping up to 20 percent?

I wonder if Obama will heed the warning of Professor Gabriel Calzada of King Juan Carlos University. Calzada believes nine jobs have been lost for every four “green jobs” created.

Ouch!