In a Congressional hearing yesterday, Congressman Cory Gardner questioned a staffer from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) about green job creation through the so-called 1603 grant program and got an interesting reply. Turns out as of November 10, 2011 the government had shelled out $9.7 billion and created only 8,042 jobs, most only temporary, at an eye-popping cost of $1.2 million each.
Congressman Gardner has built a bit of a reputation for his ability to get what you might call "inconvenient truths" out of government officials regarding energy policy when they are testifying in front of Congressional committees.
Check out the latest:
Regular readers of Peak might remember Gardner’s infamous thrashing of an EPA bureaucrat a little over a year ago, where he got the bureaucrat to admit the EPA doesn’t factor in the employment impact when they analyze the effect of their regulations.
Funny thing…apparently job creation wasn’t a part of the 1603 program either.
The US Treasury Department told the Congressional subcommittee holding the hearing that “job creation is not one of the statutory requirements for eligibility and thus it is not a factor in the consideration process.”
Which reminds us of another YouTube video…
This one is Obama in 2008 promising 5 million new green jobs if he was elected president. How’s that working out?