Admin: Green energy doesn’t kill jobs

The Energy Department fired back at a Spanish university study that found government subsidies to support renewable energy development in that country actually cost jobs.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory said the report from King Juan Carlos University in Madrid uses flawed methodologies and fails to account for the export potential of new green technologies and other positive economic impacts of government renewable-energy subsidies.

{mosads}“The primary conclusion made by the authors — policy support of renewable energy results in net jobs losses — is not supported by their work,” the NREL concludes in a response released last month.

The debate over jobs has emerged as a critical component in the larger fight over the climate bill. Critics of the cap-and-trade proposal have used the report from King Juan Carlos University to attack the administration’s contention that the legislation will not only protect the environment but will boost the economy and create thousands of new green jobs.

The report found that two jobs are lost for every one job created through government subsidies to support renewable energy. Author Gabriel Calzada argued that the resources spent to support renewable energy crowd out private investment elsewhere in the economy.

Conservative commentators like Glenn Beck of Fox News and Republican members of the House have used the study to attack the administration’s claims the climate bill will create jobs.

But NREL’s response said the Juan Carlos report is overly simplistic, uses old jobs data, and fails to support its own conclusions.

“There is no justification given for the assumption that government spending (e.g., tax credits or subsidies) would force out private investment. This assumption is fundamental to the conclusion that Spain’s renewable energy policy has resulted in job loss,” the NREL says.

The Energy Department study can be found here.

The King Juan Carlos University study is here.