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Green jobs or green trade deficit |
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Written by Stumo
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Monday, 29 June 2009 |
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Green jobs are sure fine to pursue. But recognize that they don't just appear like those non-existent benefits predicted by the wacko free traders.
Remember the free traders said we don't need a plan, we just need free trade. If we lose low-tech jobs, we will move up the food chain to high-tech jobs. That was not true. It was false. We have deficits and offshoring in all categories.
The Administration promotes green jobs. We have a trade deficit in the "green" sector. The New America Foundation shows a green trade deficit of $8.9 billion in 2008.
Green investment is a major pillar of the president's economic
recovery plan. Yet, America's dependence on foreign countries to
produce green technologies may undermine this recovery strategy. Using
a list of green goods derived from the Organization of Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC), we have determined that the United States ran an
overall green trade deficit of -$8.9 billion in 2008, including a
deficit of -$6.4 billion in the critical category of renewable energy,
one of the main targets of the Obama administration's green agenda.
The U.S. economy also suffered a significant deficit in the pollution
management category. On the positive side, the United States ran
modest surpluses in two categories--energy efficiency and a grouping of
other environmental goods related to water purification and sustainable
agriculture.
That deficit won't change without an overall plan to fix our trade deficit.
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