Van Jones: A Green Bailout Would be Twice the Bang for Half the Bucks

The historic $700 billion bailout package might – might – avert a total economic meltdown.  But, it’s probably not going to stop America from going into a recession.  So believes Van Jones, and he’s taken to The Huffington Post to explain why a ‘green bailout’ would be a better idea.  A $350 billion investment in green energy could provide millions of new jobs, boost the economy and help us move forward into clean energy independence.

From The Huffington Post:

A new report just released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors says that we can create over 4 million green jobs if we aggressively shift away from traditional fossil fuels toward alternative energy and a significant improvement in energy efficiency.

Another report just released by the Political Economy Research Institute and the Center for American Progress shows that the U.S. can create two million jobs over two years by investing $100 billion in a green economic recovery plan. The report also shows that this investment would create four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.

Green For All and its partners are proposing a Clean Energy Corps that includes a revolving loan fund to finance the ambitious retrofitting of the nation’s building stock. An investment of less than $3 billion per year would provide financing and can be expected to create close to 120,000 green jobs a year and 600,000 over five years, while also lowering home heating and electricity bills for homeowners and small businesses.

As Jones points out, a green economic package like this would be expensive up front but would pay for itself in energy savings and in tax dollars generated by new jobs and businesses.  Read more about the Clean Energy Corps proposal at the Green for All website.  Jones also goes into greater detail of his vision for a better future in his new book, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems.

Link [The Huffington Post] + [Green for All]

The Next Bull Market: Green Investing

During these historic times of chaos and fear on Wall Street, one market still stands poised to achieve great success: green investing, which includes everything from wind and solar power to forest conservation.  It’s the next ‘bull market’, and it’s got a lot of promise for investors looking to pick up the pieces of their financial futures.

From The Nation:

Since 2001, the wind industry has grown 339 percent; the solar industry has grown a whopping 579 percent; both are projected to continue their blockbuster double-digit annual growth into the foreseeable future. In contrast, the Dow Jones average has climbed just 2 percent during the same period, and is only barely hanging on at those levels because of the artificial boost produced by talk of the bailout.

A recent report by the Center for American Progress estimates that investing just $100 billion in the green economy (one-seventh the amount contemplated in the administration’s proposed Wall Street bailout) would create 2 million new jobs, with a significant percentage of those coming in the struggling manufacturing and construction sectors. In contrast, investing that much money in the financial services sector would generate just 1.1 million jobs, according to an analysis conducted by the study’s authors, Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier of the University of Massachusetts. In other words, Wall Street’s offering about half the jobs for the same money: hardly a smart bet for the taxpayer.

The Nation explains how a green investment on the level of the Wall Street bailout could create growth on a massive scale, almost entirely eliminating unemployment and significantly raising middle-class incomes. We’d be pushing forth on the transition to clean energy at a pace that would eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels at a much faster rate than could occur otherwise. It would also provide funding for a new green tech revolution, allowing ideas like skyscraper farms to become reality.  Check it out at The Nation’s website.

It’s true – think of how much we could accomplish by diverting just a fraction of the massive Wall Street bailout to green tech instead of rescuing firms that have made their mistakes.  Of course, that’s not going to happen, but green investing is certainly radiating promise during such uncertain times.

Link [The Nation]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

T. Boone Pickens Says Jump, Investors Act Like Crazed Kids on Pogo Sticks

T. Boone Pickens has gained a lot of clout lately. Let’s put aside for a moment the fact that he is one scary guy, and might become one of the people responsible for putting us into a very frightening situation with our water supply. He’s also known as being a billionaire oil tycoon and recently purchased a huge number of wind turbines. When he predicted that oil would hit $100 a barrel, investors laughed because it seemed so improbable – and then it happened. That’s why they’re now listening up to everything this guy has to say.

From Forbes:

Wall Street decided to treat T. Boone Pickens as the smartest guy in the room.

Light sweet crude prices soared 1.5%, or $1.88, to $128.93 a barrel, after the billionaire oilman said he expects it’ll hit $150 a barrel this year.

“There’s a feeling that some of these forecasts of $150 oil might be right, so why not buy it now rather than later,” Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover, told Reuters.

Pickens gave more than a number though. According to TradeTheNews.com, Pickens also said that speculators have nothing to do with high energy prices, and that oil costs are not a bubble. He that he is investing long on natural gas. This kind of support from a name that holds such credibility gave other investors a renewed sense of confidence in how they played the commodity.

Pickens is positioning himself as an energy expert, and a powerful one at that (cue ‘impending doom’ music). While we’re glad that he has made some good choices in renewable energy, this guy doesn’t have the scruples to be trustworthy – it’s all about the money for him, so if he sees big bucks in an industry that could still harm the planet, he’ll likely jump on it. We’re crossing our fingers that he sticks to renewable energy and drops the creepy water privatization plans.

Link [Forbes]
Photo credit: Flickr user sfslim