Green Jobbed

Barack Obama and Mark Dayton are both pinning their economic development hopes on “green jobs” – jobs directly related to environmental hysteria.

At least one of those initiatives is squibbing, so far:

Well, here’s the big scorecard for all sales of [Chevy Volts and Nissan Leafs] thus far:

  • Volt: 928
  • Leaf: 173

Ouch. The big questions, of course, revolve around one word: “Why?” Is ramping up production and deliveries still a problem? Is demand weak? Are unscrupulous dealers to blame? When will sales start to climb? And what are these numbers doing to plug-in vehicle work at other automakers? We don’t know all the answers, but for more on February auto sales, click here.

Big answer:  Because people don’t buy the hype, and you cannot create a market by decree.

10 thoughts on “Green Jobbed

  1. It has been revealed this past week on the Bob Davis show, that if you own one of these in MN, you are utterly and toally screwed in the winter. Since there is no water circulating in the “engine,” these cars rely on electric heaters which drain the battery very quickly, even in mid 30’s temps. Bottom line; drop your miles per charge to about 20 miles on days where the mercury drops into minus 0 territory. And, if you are driving one a get stuck in snow, too…fahget about it!

  2. The way to create wealth is not to spend $50k to accomplish what you could do for $30k.
    Obama does not understand this. Obama is an idiot.

  3. It’s heartening to learn that even most environmentalists have figured out that a car that effectively runs at 20% efficiency on bituminous coal isn’t exactly a win for the environment–especially when the environmentally sound choice (Corolla/Civic/Cobalt/whatever) is half the price of the Volt or Leaf.

  4. Recycling is my private bugaboo. I hate it. People act like trained monkeys, separating their trash because . . . no one knows, but everyone is in favor of it.
    There is nothing wrong with landfills. They are not pretty to look at, but they don’t take up much space. The problem with dust and other emissions are solved by covering them with sand or gravel every day or two. The problem with water table seepage is solved by lining the landfill with clay and processing the seepage with a standard water treatment plant.
    Let me repeat:
    There is nothing wrong with landfills.
    Recycling is a money loser. Put ten million in, get 9 million out, and that missing million could be used by the county or city to hire, say, ten nurses for a local free clinic.
    And oh, yeah, a lot of that stuff you meticulously sort into different random groups all goes into the landfill anyway if it’s deemed contaminated or market forces decree that it makes no economic sense to recycle it even with generous subsidies from the government.
    As the economics prof. Michael Munger says:

    There is a simple test for determining whether something is a resource (something valuable) or just garbage (something you want to dispose of at the lowest possible cost, including costs to the environment). If someone will pay you for the item, it’s a resource. Or, if you can use the item to make something else people want, and do it at lower price or higher quality than you could without that item, then the item is also a resource. But if you have to pay someone to take the item away, or if other things made with that item cost more or have lower quality, then the item is garbage.

    http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2007/Mungerrecycling.html

    Garbage belongs in a landfill. Recycling is a monumental waste of human time and money.

  5. Penn and Teller covered recycling in an excellent episode of “Bulls*t” a few years back, noting that of all the different types of recycling, the only one that makes sense is metal – because there is a market for it. Companies *pay* to get old metal to recycle – which is why people return cans and troll the alleys looking for scrap metal.

    Because it is of some intrinsic worth in its recyclable form.

    No other kind – paper, plastic, anything – comes close.

  6. I don’t believe that Penn & Teller are always reliable.
    They are pro open-immigration & once did a show showing Mexicans using a twelve-foot ladder to climb a nine-foot fence. Ha! Subtle!
    I take that it that this demonstration indicated that they did not lock their doors at night, since a two dollar screw driver can pry open a $400 locked door.

  7. Recycling can be a great business decision.

    It was over 20 years ago when I developed a recycling program for Stroh’s at the old Hamm’s Brewery in St. Paul.
    In less than 3 months I cut their trash bills by 60%.

  8. No other kind – paper, plastic, anything – comes close.

    Not true. It is big, nay, huge business. Most of your cardboard has recycled content. Same for plastic containers of all shapes and sizes.

    Now, recycling does not make sense on a municipal level. While we are all paying for it, companies using paper and plastic recycled materials are getting a winfall. Put paper and plastic recycling on similar footing with metal – ie collection centers, fair price, etc, and let the market take over.

  9. bosshoss;

    Is there such a thing as “excess beer”? Heh heh heh

    The best thing to do with beer is to run it through a chemical process… which ends with a stream of non-potable liquid…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.