RW facebook friend tells me that renewable energy destroys more jobs than it creates.

[Hello_Kitty]

He says that solar in Spain eliminated 2.2 jobs elsewhere for every one it created. This is a common wingnut talking point and I'm not understanding where they're getting it. I don't see how one person going to work for the solar industry in some capacity puts two people working in another industry out of their jobs.

What is the basis for this claim?

[Drale]

1. You have to force them to provide proof

until these right wing nut jobs can provide proof for their rantings, thats all they are is rantings.

[DBoon]

4. Anyone can make up numbers

it takes a wingnut to believe in made-up numbers

[tabatha]

2. There is a rebuttal to this that I once found.

I'll see if I can find it again.

[Hello_Kitty]

3. Thanks!

[tabatha]

5. Here it is:

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy09osti/46261.pdfhttp://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy09osti/46261.pdf

José Luis García, Director of Energy and Climate Change for Greenpeace, also explained in an interview with Renewable Energy Magazine at the start of July that he believes the Calzada Report presents incorrect data with the explicit intention of attacking renewable energies. “The Calzada Report has been prepared by the author who has been a fellow of the Centre for the New Europe, a think tank which has received $170,000 from the multinational oil company Exxon, developed with the aim of boycotting the Kyoto protocol”. As part of this strategy and in view of the fact that renewables can no longer be ignored, “what these neo-conservative centres are trying to do is impede their growth. This is the only reason why research such as this has been financed”, declares José Luis García.

http://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/paginas/Contenidosecciones.asp?ID=14&Cod=4022&Tipo=&Nombre=Latest%20news

Another discussion
http://climateprogress.org/2009/05/04/heritage-foundation-green-jobs-dirty-energy-exxonmobil/

[veganlush]

6. I don't know about the Spain story (yet)

but conservation almost by definition creates efficiency which can mean fewer jobs in some contexts. For example, a switch to electric cars will mean a reduction at some point in oil refinery jobs, etc..the trick is in doing the calculation across the board to account for jobs that are created by the new technology. This gray area is where opponents of energy policy plant their seeds. Generally speaking though, if your lawnmower is solar powered you won't be buying gas for it. The jobs depending on it will be limited to the jobs required for it's manufacture and repair but unlike gas mowers, it won't support gasoline related jobs.

[texastoast]

11. It's the transition they are scared of

But there is SO much money to be made. Just different areas. No more pumpjacks or drilling rigs? Fine. Need wind generators and the petroleum drillers and workover crew retrains.

Who's going to remove all the pipelines that cross the country and recycle the good old steel?

Won't need gas pumps, but we will need charging stations at our convenience stores.

New installs of chargers in parking garages. That's a big infrastructure change and produces many jobs.

Every gasoline powerered machine has to be redesigned. Lots of work there.

Who's going to work on the repair end of solar technology, generator maintenance? Recycling and disposal?

And who is going to do the installs in every home in America?

PLENTY of jobs for a long time. Maybe by the time the transition is finished, our population will have clued in that we need to reduce our numbers, attrition has worked, and we can finally get a sustainable balance of Earth to people.

[Rambis]

7. Problem with these nutters is

they will get another nutter with a PHD or some quack scientist to back up there claims and people will swallow it hook line and sinker. Just remember, nothing the right wing nazi types say has any basis in fact. If they happen to stumble on a fact they pervert it, disregard it or shape it to their vision. They are ideologues

[Hello_Kitty]

8. Oh I know. It's the bystanders I'm concerned with.

When we sit quietly while wingnuts spread lies they repeat them louder and people start to believe them. They've succeeded in sowing doubt in the American public about manmade climate change. But renewable energy is still popular so now they are attacking it as a "job killer".

[zeaper]

9. This could be argued either way.

But a 2 for 1 loss is a bit extreme.

In one case you could argue that renewable energy is more expensive which could drive some jobs away because of high energy costs.

On the other hand you could say that renewable energy will promote tourism which will provide more jobs.

[ingac70]

10. More stuff pulled out of RW radio hosts' asses.

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/11/11/spain-looks-green-jobs-remedy-soaring-unemployment

[DCKit]

12. "...eliminated 2.2 jobs elsewhere for every one it created." In China?

The basis for the claim is the desire to discredit alt. energy development.

Just think of the scale of what we'd need to do to build and maintain the infrastructure for such a distributed system(s), and the lie is obvious.

[BeFree]

13. He's right..

Renewable energy puts Americans to work destroying foreign crude oil jobs.

[madokie]

14. They just pull those numbers out their arses

its easy when one is lacking a full deck anyway.

[WVRICK13]

15. I Solved My RW Facebook Friends Problem

I posted and asked all RW people listed as my friends to please de-friend me because I was tired of reading their bullshit. Facebook is much more fun now.

[jpak]

16. It's the same RW basis they used to create WMD in Iraq - fucking lies.

completely made up

yup