March 9, 2013
By Chris Reed
Greens were doing some chest-thumping this week after a new study came out that said California led the nation in 2012 in creation of green jobs.
“Environmental Entrepreneurs tracks the creation of green jobs on a monthly basis. The 2012 wrap-up found firms announced the creation of 110,000 green jobs last year. About 26,000 of those jobs were in California.”
But that’s a puny number by almost any objective standard. It confirms that green jobs are just a small niche and will never be a core sector of the economy, just as the respected McKinsey consulting firm predicted, and just as Barack Obama’s economics advisers told him in winter 2008-09 as they put together what would become the 2009 stimulus bill, and just as I told Gov. Jerry Brown when he touted the same myths as Obama and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Meanwhile, let’s look at the employment numbers in North Dakota, where leaders emphasize brown jobs — created by the fracking boom — not subsidized, corporate crony green jobs. From 2010 to 2012, this tiny little state went from 370,000 employed residents to 421,000 employed residents — a stunning 14 percent increase with few parallels in recent U.S. history. Equivalent growth in the California workforce would mean 2 million new jobs.
Let’s trade governors with North Dakota
Instead, as of December, the Golden State continued to have the third highest unemployment rate in the nation, and North Dakota continued to have the lowest — a tiny 3.2 percent — and a different set of worker problems than those seen in any other state.
If only we could trade governors and legislatures. Bill Clinton had that great post-presidential gig in Argentina, remember?
Oh, wait. That was in The Onion’s world. It’s stranger than ours. But not by too much. Consider that California easily could be the Saudi Arabia of the First World, but that the majority party that controls the state thinks this is a bad thing. Instead of the 21st-century version of “There Will Be Blood,” in Sacramento, it’s more like “There Will Be Duds.”
Kalifornia could solve, or put off for 20 years, all of their financial problems by embracing fracking. The politically correct form of suicide the state is committing is insane.
Hondo….
A worker in the oil industry was literally boiled alive when he stepped on unstable ground at a fracking site. I don’t recall whether or not it was in CA. The company/employer was fined a tiny amount of money for its negligence. I don’t know much about fracking, but is it worth any more human lives?
Well SeeSaw, at least 50,000 people lost their lives in automobile accidents last year. That includes men, women, and children of all ages. Do you think we should all go back to horse travel? Oh wait…people used to get thrown off or trampled to death by horses too. But if eliminating automobiles and horses can save just one life, I guess it would all be worth it, don’t you agree?
SeeSaw:
It is not uncommon for workers in the tree trimming industry to get pulled into the wood chipper. Thats a bloody mess. Should we shut down all wood chippers?
I’ve worked in the oil industry in Texas and it can be dangerous. Mostly from dudes hung over from the night before, or still half drunk, injuring them selves. Home Depot had a terrible safety problem till they got sued enough.
Hondo….
I understand that accidents happen. I just think that any respective employer needs to put proper safety precautions in place. If an employee walks on unstable ground, and gets boiled alive like that employee did, I don’t see that proper precautions were taken. The company should have had to pay a substantial fine, so that something like that will never occur again–not one that amounts to the cost of breakfast to them.
The assumption of a California liberal is that the employer is responsible, not the employee’s negligence. The Beast, i.e gov t agencies, pension obligations needs to be fed…more fines more taxes. Go Gov t, get after those bad capitlists, we will show them. It reminds me of a TV shot back in the 80’s of a UAW worker in Detroit, stating workers would be sabotaging cars on the assembly line(placing a loose bolt in a trapped space to create an engine rattle) unless the company gave in to UAW demands. Gee, how is that working out? Hence, more and more of private industry is saying adios to California.