Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

green jobs

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Taxpayer Dollars Spent on Green Jobs in Morocco

The State Department through its Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs plans to spend $450,000 to create green jobs in Morocco.

“Morocco has set the goal to become one of the world’s largest sustainable economies by 2020, with an emphasis on creating green jobs in: renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, environmental and natural resource management, and improvement in environmental technologies,” the grant announcement said.

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Green Jobs Program Struggling

Placement in jobs retained more than six months through a $500 million Labor Department green-jobs training program is falling 84 percent short of its goal, according to a report released Friday.

The Labor inspector general audit offered a bleak picture of one of President Obama’s chief stimulus and policy goals — creating green jobs.

“Although grantees have reported achieving 90 percent of serving a collective goal of 126,493 participants, entered employment and retention results are far lower than planned,” the audit, which was an update to a September 2011 report, reports.

The Obama administration defended the Labor program in a letter attached to the report, calling the grants “smart investments that are preparing Americans for the clean energy jobs driving our 21st Century economy.”

That more than half of the grants for the program are still active indicates performance figures will improve, Jane Oates, assistant secretary for Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, said in the letter.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, requested the audit. He likened the program to a handful of Energy Department-backed stimulus loans to now-bankrupt green-energy firms.

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Who Really Has the Outsourcing Problem?

Among President Obama’s disingenuous promises made over his four years, he said he would focus on creating “jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.” Yet he spent billions of U.S. taxpayer’s money overseas to create outsourced jobs.

Typical of Obama’s passion for outsourcing was the appointment of his Jobs Czar, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric. Even as he was basking in the prestige of his new title, Immelt was closing his last U.S. plant making light bulbs in Virginia and opening a plant in China to manufacture more expensive light bulbs that Americans will be forced to buy.

General Electric also opened a $61 million factory in Vietnam to produce wind turbine components. General Electric and the President’s Jobs Council, headed by Immelt, have received over $1.2 billion in Stimulus funds.

General Electric placed an order with wind turbine manufacturer ATI Casting, but then canceled it in order to get the parts cheaper from China. ATI offered to match the Chinese price, but GE refused to reinstate its order to the U.S. company, so ATI was forced to lay off 302 American workers.

Obama also promised in October 2008 that he would “invest $15 billion a year in renewable energy sources to create 5 million new energy jobs over the next decade — jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.” Obama painted the picture of a future in which Americans will build solar panels, wind turbines and a new electricity grid.

It all sounded so exciting. Obama predicted a future where his Stimulus-created jobs would help us “eliminate” Middle East oil within ten years and “help save the planet in the bargain.” How could we resist his assurance that going into massive debt would reap such a glorious reward!

Proclaiming that his goal was to put one million electric cars on the road by 2015, Obama set up a $2.4 billion Stimulus program to support battery production. But nearly half that money went to foreign firms, including two South Korean companies that used their grants to hire foreign nationals in Michigan to do work that Americans could have done.

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