By Institute for Energy Research ——Bio and Archives--October 27, 2010
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How we fund the project. Don't ask questions.
The Obama Administration is praising the project because the upshot will be around a 1,000 jobs at the "peak of construction" and almost "300 permanent jobs to operate the facility." But no one is talking about the looming downside of the project. As we saw in Spain, government investment in green technology and green jobs crowd out real investment and real jobs. Readers familiar with Bastiat will recall his "Broken Window Fallacy," in which a punk kid is praised as a job creator after destroying a butcher's windowpane. Although the glazer gets paid to repair the window, what is not seen is the new pair of slacks the butcher would have bought from the tailor. Instead of having a new window and slacks, the butcher now only has the window. California created a broken window fallacy of investment by focusing on what is seen and failing to consider what could have been. What is even more shocking about this project is that "state and federal regulators pledged...to work together to fast-track approval" while shallow and deep-water oil rig operators in the Gulf wait for permits. Be careful Californians, the rush of green energy prospectors to your state could mean you end up with fool's gold.View Comments
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a not-for-profit organization that conducts intensive research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains that freely-functioning energy markets provide the most efficient and effective solutions to today’s global energy and environmental challenges and, as such, are critical to the well-being of individuals and society.