Preening that Nevada could lead the nation in linking job creation to energy efficiency, state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford detailed his \u201cgreen jobs\u201d initiative to a legislative panel in Carson City last Friday. <\/p>\n
SB152 would use federal stimulus funds to train an estimated 3,200 workers at a cost of about $3,500 each, and cover costs of weatherizing about 6,500 homes and upgrading government buildings and schools to make them more efficient, explained Mr. Horsford, D-Las Vegas. <\/p>\n
The result would be reduced greenhouse emissions, lower energy costs and a work force ready for the renewable energy industry, Mr. Horsford told the Senate Energy, Infrastructure and Transportation Committee. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, we will have a skilled work force that is ready to go for a new wave of renewable energy projects, making our state an attractive place to build renewable energy businesses, once and for all, establishing Nevada as a leader — as the leader — in this new green economy in our country,\u201d Mr. Horsford said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m all too aware that the first question in everyone\u2019s mind is how we will pay for all these big, bold ideas,\u201d the senate majority leader quickly added. But he had an answer, of course. <\/p>\n
The new federal stimulus package, totaling nearly $1.5 billion for Nevada, has earmarked tens of millions of dollars to Nevada for job training, weatherization, state energy programs and energy block grants. Staffers are working to determine requirements for qualifying for those funds, Mr. Horsford said. <\/p>\n
This all sounds great, except for the fact that it\u2019s pathetic nonsense that wouldn\u2019t earn a passing grade at the 8th grade science fair. <\/p>\n
First, excuse the continued repetition of the obvious, but no government can \u201ccreate jobs.\u201d All this government money will come from taxes on productive citizens and enterprises — or else by printing more new \u201cfunny money\u201d at the current ongoing rate of about 20 percent per year, which must eventually have the inevitable effect of diminishing the value of dollars currently held by private companies and investors by 20 percent annually, meaning $100 held today will have a buying power of only 41 \u201c2009 dollars\u201d by 2013. <\/p>\n
Either way, this money to \u201ccreate government jobs\u201d has been taken away from the kind of private sector capitalists who would otherwise build casinos, railroads, gold mines, pizza joints, and refrigerator factories. Those REAl entrepreneurs will therefore create fewer jobs — real jobs, actually producing stuff. Instead, the jobs have merely been \u201cshifted\u201d — to the new equivalent of hiring men to build rock staircases in the woods. <\/p>\n
For instance, the private sector wanted to build a coal-fired electric generating station up at Ely, generating thousands of construction jobs, and then some 200 permanent jobs running the place. That would have actually produced something — new power. And profits — for unlike schemes cooked up by central planners like Mr. Horsford, private sector initiatives have to actually pencil out as \u201cincome-generating.\u201d <\/p>\n
The \u201cgreens\u201d killed that idea, even though replacing foreign oil as our main energy source would require us to build either a thousand new coal-fired plants or a thousand new nuclear plants PER YEAR. <\/p>\n
Instead, Mr. Horsford now promise to spend $11 million of our hard-earned dollars training 3,200 unemployed folks how to perform a home or commercial \u201cenergy audit\u201d and then slap an extra layer of plastic insulation over the windows — a one-time operation that generally takes a couple of days, and which most folks could actually learn to perform … well, in a couple of days. That means a work crew of 3,200 could do half a million homes per year — assuming Mr. Horsford gets around to telling us who\u2019ll pay these highly-skilled plastic staplers to go to work once they\u2019re \u201ctrained.\u201d <\/p>\n
Then what? <\/p>\n
Plus — assuming this $11 million doesn\u2019t just vanish down the \u201cfeasibility study\u201d hole without a trace — the one-time federal \u201cstimulus dollars\u201d will quickly run out, won\u2019t they? At that point, will Mr. Horsford and his colleagues start whining that the state Legislature has no choice but to take over ongoing funding of the \u201cWeatherization Army\u201d — along with his new, storefront, Culinary-associated \u201cVelvet Jones School of Weatherization Science\u201d — lest the whole gang go back on welfare? Will he meantime announce a “bold” new initiative to \u201cweatherize every dog house and chicken coop in Nevada\u201d? <\/p>\n
Oh no, I forgot: A couple days of \u201cweatherstrip\u201d training will make these former video store clerks and valet parkers prime candidates to compete for jobs against out-of-state scientists with advanced engineering degrees when it comes time to design the \u201cHarry Reid Memorial Solar Farm and Toxic Battery Station.\u201d <\/p>\n
Finally, this plan will cut costs in a number of other areas by reducing dependence on foreign oil, Mr. Horsford said. <\/p>\n
Really. He really said that. <\/p>\n
But it won\u2019t. Building 1,000 new coal-fired power plants and\/or 1,000 new nuclear plants per year (which wouldn\u2019t raise global temperatures enough to incubate a chicken egg) would \u201creduce our dependence on foreign oil.\u201d But that\u2019s what the greens and their political pals WON\u2019T let us do. <\/p>\n
Instead, we\u2019re going to train an army of the unemployed to weather-strip chicken coops. <\/p>\n
Who on earth will be in charge of implementing these \u201cbig, bold ideas\u201d? Is Emma \u201cMa\u201d Chalmers available? Claude Slagenhop? Wesley Mouch? <\/p>\n
Hee haw! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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