Van Jones: Romney distorts truth on green jobs

[babylonsister]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/06/opinion/jones-romney-green-jobs/index.html?hpt=op_t1

Romney distorts truth on green jobs
By Van Jones, Special to CNN

Editor's note: Van Jones is president and founder of RebuildTheDream.com, an online platform for political innovation focused on policy, economics and media. He was President Obama's green jobs advisor in 2009.


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The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that there are 3.1 million green jobs in the United States right now. This is a big success story for Obama. Today, there are 75,000 Americans employed in the wind energy business alone, compared with 81,000 coal miners. Today, the top three clean-tech states each employ more people in green jobs than the coal industry does nationwide. Romney is willing to jeopardize those jobs by arguing for killing the wind energy tax credit -- while refusing to end subsidies and supports for the fossil fuel industry.

(By the way: Coal employment is still high. Regulations that place more stringent public health standards on coal mining have actually created more jobs in coal mining industry, thanks to EPA. Even if the number of miners goes down at some point, I would blame dynamite, not government regulations. More and more, "mountaintop removal" is the standard practice for coal companies, and simply blowing up a mountain to scrape the coal out requires fewer workers. )

Romney is right that Obama has not been willing to open up some public lands for oil drilling and coal mining. That is a good thing. If it were left up to people like Romney, there might be oil rigs in places like the Grand Canyon. That approach not only desecrates our nation's natural beauty, it is an unnecessary and excessive risk. The United States is on its way to being a net oil exporter, without jeopardizing the beauty and integrity of our public lands.

Both conservatives and liberals should be happy with Obama's energy policies. Oil, coal and natural gas production is up, which should please the right. But energy efficiency and conservation is also up, which should please the left.

Romney -- like his running mate, Paul Ryan -- sounds great when he is spinning his yarns about America under Obama. But he knows precious little about the renewable energy industry and is relying on Tea Party talking points to score cheap points, at the expense of America's clean energy entrepreneurs.

There is an upside: This fall, both Ryan and Romney have already created a full employment program -- for fact checkers.