GreenBuild Blog
Sunday, February 10, 2008
How Real Are “Green Collar” Jobs?
Let’s take a look, with a focus on green buildings and solar technology (this is not the whole of the argument for green collar jobs, but is instructive nonetheless). In the green building arena, the Holy Grail of all designers and builders is to build high-performance, LEED-certified buildings at the same cost as conventional “brown” buildings. If there’s no cost increase, there’s no net increase in jobs, plain and simple, Economics 101. What we’ll have is the same contractors (and people) installing different systems and equipment. When we look at on-site renewable energy production, we’ll obviously have an increase in solar electric systems, as the costs for these come down over time, so there are some “new jobs” being created, but primarily with federal tax credits (set to expire this coming December) and utility incentive payments. If there are no federal tax credits, look for the rapid growth of the solar electric industry to come to a screeching halt in 2009. The same thing happened in 1986 in the U.S., when federal tax credits (and in the case of California, state tax credits) expired at the end of 1985. The industry lost 90 percent of sales (and jobs) almost overnight and (in the case of solar water heating) has never recovered. Do I think the same thing is likely to happen this time? Probably not, because the concern about global warming will likely keep most federal, state and utility incentives in place. But remember one truth of economics; if I rob Peter to pay Paul, I haven’t gained any economic benefit or created any new jobs. I’ve just transferred the jobs from Peter’s company to Paul’s. If I take tax revenues and utility payments to subsidize one form of green technology, there’s less money left over for other investments. It’s only if these investments result in greater productivity do I gain any new jobs.
PermalinkTweet
Page 1 of 1 pages
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via Email