Van Jones’s Misguided Defense of Green Jobs

Nicolas Loris / March 16, 2010

Last Friday, Van Jones debated Andy Morriss, Law Professor at the University of Illinois in The Economist on the topic of green jobs. Surprisingly, Morriss says, there’s one thing we can all agree on:

Van Jones and I agree that ‘the private sector, not the government, can and must be the main driver in creating green jobs.’ We agree that government subsidies for coal, oil and nuclear power are a serious problem.

With the exceptions of their sentiments on corn-based ethanol and the need for innovation, the agreement stops there. Van Jones’ solution to the problem of existing subsidies is piling more on instead of peeling them back. Morriss refutes, “Far from leveling the playing field, these new subsidies dwarf the old ones: solar and wind receive subsidies of over $23/Mwh compared with the $0.44/Mwh for conventional coal and $0.25/Mwh for natural gas.”

Worse, even with massive subsidies wind and solar make up a very small fraction of America’s energy supply. It’s plausible for renewable energy sources to help meet America’s growing energy demands, but it should be done absent of taxpayer assistance.
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