The half-hearted, Greening of America, via China, Spain, Poland …

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Elusive Goal of Greening U.S. Energy

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, Dec 2, 2009

The Great Green Hope for lifting America’s economy is not looking so robust.

[…]

Growth in clean energy industries and in green jobs has been considerably slower and bumpier than anticipated, industry experts say.

[…]

Last week, the Gamesa wind turbine plant in western Pennsylvania announced it was laying off nearly half its 280 workers. Last month, General Electric said it would close a solar panel factory in Delaware

[…]

There are myriad reasons why green jobs have grown more slowly than hoped. The clean energy component of the $787 billion stimulus package has only recently started to kick in. Energy experts say that banks, which have been reluctant to lend generally, have been especially loath to lend for alternative energy projects.

And renewable-energy companies are hesitating to invest in new plants and equipment before Congress enacts new environmental mandates, like cap and trade, to limit carbon emissions.

[…]

Recently, the Obama administration has taken several steps it says will soon produce thousands of green jobs. In August, it announced $2.3 billion in tax credits that will go to manufacturers of clean energy technologies. It has also allocated $6 billion for loan guarantees that could, in turn, generate $60 billion in investments.

[…]

While many green industry executives and environmental experts applaud these efforts, they say more needs to be done. Some note that even with the administration’s recent moves, it has spent less than one-fourth of the $80 billion clean energy component of the stimulus package.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12…

Those are some of the Gamesa wind turbine manufacturing jobs moving to Spain

Funny aren’t those the KIND OF JOBS we want to promote, for displaced American Workers ???

Manufacturing is manufacturing, be it Cars, or Windmills,

or even Solar Panels:

GE to Close Its Only U.S. Solar Panel Factory

November 09, 2009

General Electric (GE) plans to close its only U.S. solar panel factory because production costs have exceeded sale prices.

[…]

Mass.-based Evergreen Solar (ESLR) said it would move panel production from its factory in Devens, Mass., to China next year in order to cut costs.

[…]

BP Solar (BP) announced it would close its solar panel factory in Maryland and outsource that work to a contract manufacturer. … BP said it had hired Jabil Circuit to assemble panels at a Jabil factory in Poland.

[…]

Some manufacturers have seen prices for their products fall by anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent over the past year.

http://seekingalpha.com/articl…

Shouldn’t the Green Jobs Stimulus, (and the Banking Bailouts) be providing the Demand for those Green Products, by now?

Green Company Exec’s need the Orders NOW — NOT 12 Months from now.

Yet for most Corporate Giants, other Market Forces are still as play

Afterall Corporations, have the Luxury, of maintaining patriotic allegiance to NO ONE Country …

Perhaps this little Corporate Incentive Package is still in place?

Senate should eliminate Outsourcing Tax Credit

August 11, 2006,  Jim Webb

Outsourcing is one of the most significant forces threatening jobs in America today. The first step in fighting this battle must be the elimination of measures in place today that encourage businesses to engage in outsourcing.

http://www.roanoke.com/editori…

And if the Gridlocked County Club, aka The Senate, has somehow manage to block THAT Job Drainage loophole — How about considering another little Corporate incentive:

How about An Outsourcing Tax, on any Stimulus Green Jobs, that end up overseas?

that would stem the bleeding in Middle America, wouldn’t it?

American Tax Dollars, SHOULD go to supporting American Jobs!

PERIOD!

Green Goals are Good!

and the Obama Administration definitely has them!

One Question though: Do these Green Goals go FAR Enough?

Obama Trumpets Energy Grants

By JONATHAN WEISMAN and REBECCA SMITH, Oct 28, 2009

The Obama administration launched a clean-energy blitz Tuesday, with President Barack Obama sweeping into this Central Florida hamlet to unveil $3.4 billion in stimulus grants for advanced electricity-grid projects

[…]

The administration Tuesday released a list of about 100 companies and communities in 45 states and territories that will receive federal subsidies to modernize the electric grid. The administration promised the projects would create “tens of thousands of jobs.”

[…]

A main goal of grid modernization is to give customers and utilities more data to use energy more efficiently — which represents an opportunity for software vendors as well as companies that make electrical-system hardware.

[…]

The Department of Energy said grants of $400,000 to $200 million will lead to the installation of at least 18 million advanced digital meters, sometimes called “smart meters,” which should bring the nation’s total to about 40 million, or enough to cover 31% of U.S. housing units.

Digital meters are electronic, not electro-mechanical like conventional meters, and can offer two-way communication between utilities and customers. They are the backbone of demand-reduction efforts because they would allow utilities to charge different rates at different times of day and they could be programmed to alert consumers when grid conditions require special action.

http://online.wsj.com/article/…

Installation of at least 18 million advanced digital meters?

Is that enough? … Seems like there are WAY more than 18 million Electric Customers in America, isn’t there?

Is only 31% of America’s Homes, worth Modernizing? What about the rest of us, with increasing Energy Bills too?

Sooner or later that sleep giant of Middle America, must be addressed.



Real Opportunities, Real Jobs, and Real Security — must return to OUR Shores!

Corporations that fail to do so, should have their State Charters revoked,

or at least their Tax burden increased!

It’s long past time to encourage the IN-SOURCING of JOBS!  NOW!

larger image

The restless giant of the Unemployed, and under appreciated,

will NOT laungish, silent, forever …

In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground labor pool from illegal immigration, the average American worker is seeing a different life and a troubling future. Trickle-down economics didn’t happen. Despite the vaunted all-time highs of the stock market, wages and salaries are at all-time lows as a percentage of the national wealth.

[…] Manufacturing jobs are disappearing. Many earned pension programs have collapsed in the wake of corporate “reorganization.” And workers’ ability to negotiate their futures has been eviscerated by the twin threats of modern corporate America: If they complain too loudly, their jobs might either be outsourced overseas or given to illegal immigrants.

This ever-widening divide is too often ignored or downplayed by its beneficiaries. A sense of entitlement has set in among elites, bordering on hubris. When I raised this issue with corporate leaders during the recent political campaign, I was met repeatedly with denials, and, from some, an overt lack of concern for those who are falling behind.

A troubling arrogance is in the air among the nation’s most fortunate. Some shrug off large-scale economic and social dislocations as the inevitable byproducts of the “rough road of capitalism.” Others claim that it’s the fault of the worker or the public education system, that the average American is simply not up to the international challenge, that our education system fails us, or that our workers have become spoiled by old notions of corporate paternalism.

Still others have gone so far as to argue that these divisions are the natural results of a competitive society.

[…]

More troubling is this: If it remains unchecked, this bifurcation of opportunities and advantages along class lines has the potential to bring a period of political unrest. Up to now, most American workers have simply been worried about their job prospects. Once they understand that there are (and were) clear alternatives to the policies that have dislocated careers and altered futures, they will demand more accountability from the leaders who have failed to protect their interests. The “Wal-Marting” of cheap consumer products brought in from places like China …

from a very important Jim Webb essay on America’s Class Struggle

This is NOT the United States of China — not yet anyways!

American Tax Dollars, SHOULD go to ONLY supporting American Jobs!

Enough!

America better get it gear, and soon,

Time will NOT heal the damage done — when OUR Jobs keep Leaving the Country,

for good, never to return.  … Enough!