PILGRIM: There are lots of reasons for our economy and environment to invest in wind and solar energy but wind and solar are capital-intensive industry, not labor intensive. So job creation would be expensive.
According to the Center for American Progress, it would take $50,000 of taxpayer money to create every green job, a government subsidized job in an industry already heavily subsidized. The house stimulus proposal of $18 billion would be ten times the current government funding for renewable energy. The senate plan of $14 billion is seven times higher. And neither plan would spend the money quickly.
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: Whether you're talking 14 or 18, you only have about 2 that could possibly be properly spent in the first two years. These projects are taking ten-plus years to get off the ground because even those who say they're environmentalists don't want them in their backyard.
PILGRIM: And the Congressional Budge Office says the new funding would not be stimulative. "We therefore expect that the proportion of spending that would occur in the first few years would be lower than for the existing programs, reflecting the time it would take doe to establish new programs." Some say the heavily subsidized renewable energy industry does not deserve even more money.
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