{"id":285,"date":"2012-02-26T09:47:16","date_gmt":"2012-02-26T15:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=285"},"modified":"2012-02-27T09:26:09","modified_gmt":"2012-02-27T15:26:09","slug":"green-jobs-the-renewable-quandary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/26\/green-jobs-the-renewable-quandary\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Jobs the Renewable Quandary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The <\/span>recent article on green jobs from the Wall Street Journal<\/span><\/a> ends very well:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Green energy is a future for all communities we should embrace,” he said. “But they shouldn’t tell us it is for jobs.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Let me first start out and say I believe in renewable energy\u00a0 that there is a place for it in our portfolio of energy choices.\u00a0\u00a0 In addition, it can <\/span>survive without subsidies<\/span><\/a> as I noted in my previous blog.\u00a0\u00a0 The focus on jobs is a red herring.\u00a0\u00a0 The issue is not job, but it is our commitment and our ability to be competitive and productive.\u00a0\u00a0 Jobs are a symptom for the poor capital allocation in our economy.\u00a0\u00a0 If the number of jobs itself was so important, there is no way renewables can compete with fossil fuel on a net basis.\u00a0\u00a0 To prove this point, think about the massive supply chain requirements of finding, mining, and delivering coal.\u00a0 Each component of the supply chain has their ancillary needs, requiring merchants to support.\u00a0 In addition, the safety concerns and incidents occurring in fossil fuel support jobs from lawyers, doctors, to safety inspectors.\u00a0 If we examine renewables, particularly wind, once the structure is in place; God\/nature is in charge of the supply chain.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The anti-renewables can use this logic to bash renewables.\u00a0 However, I would counter by saying renewables will be freeing up human resources to be more productive for society. \u00a0\u00a0This is true as I have been espousing; \u00a0energy is just a means to an end.\u00a0\u00a0 We can now allocate people to actually use the energy to advance society.\u00a0 Increasing a work force to support energy production, ultimately does not lead to productive advancements; unless increasing the workforce actually reduces the cost of energy in order to allow more productive advancements.\u00a0 When we have an underemployed society, it is reasonable to want to search for places for jobs in order to maintain order.\u00a0 In the long-run, we must not just focus on the number of jobs, but on the complete equation: productivity = jobs X [(value-add )\u2013 (cost of jobs)].\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A Milton Friedman story I read, points out the fallacy of focusing on the number of jobs:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Milton recalled traveling to an Asian country in the 1960s. and visiting a worksite, where a new canal was being built. He was shocked to see that, instead of modern tractors and earth movers, the workers had shovels. He asked why there were so few machines. The government bureaucrat explained: \u201cYou don\u2019t understand. This is a jobs program.\u201d To which Milton replied: \u201cOh, I thought you were trying to build a canal. If it\u2019s jobs you want, then you should give these workers spoons, not shovels.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We must not lose sight that we want to have jobs that are productive.\u00a0 Jobs delivering less productivity should be less costly \u2013 this applies\u00a0to\u00a0all spectrum, from Executives to Assembly line jobs. \u00a0Energy is just a means to an end.\u00a0\u00a0 Using energy efficiently to produce and make things to enhance our lives, and advancing society, will lead to positive growth to the economy.\u00a0 There is no doubt we cannot simply be a service economy, at the same time, we cannot just be a manufacturing economy.\u00a0 We need a balance economy focused on the productivity equation above.\u00a0 There are sacrifices which must occur in both ends of the economic spectrum to support a growing economy.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We positively and evocatively challenge the current thinking involving any aspect of energy use. We look for projects that offer meaningful, transformative, with impactful outcome to the marketplace or society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Independent analysis and opinions without a bias is what we offer to our clients. Please consider All Energy Consulting for your energy consulting needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your Energy Consultant,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

David K. Bellman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent article on green jobs from the Wall Street Journal ends very well: “Green energy is a future for all communities we should embrace,” he said. “But they shouldn’t tell us it is for jobs.” Let me first start out and say I believe in renewable energy\u00a0 that there is a place for it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,17],"tags":[34,63,102,64,20,66],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-insights","category-power","category-renewables","tag-economy","tag-green-energy","tag-green-jobs","tag-renewable-energy","tag-renewables-2","tag-subsidies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenergyconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}