Way to pretend your citizens and their jobs don’t exist. Many environmentally minded folks (i.e. people who realize we need clean air, clean water, and a livable climate to survive and to have a high quality of life) had a little hope that Romney might be a “green” Republican presidential candidate, because he admitted that global warming was real. Well,.. sorry to burst your bubble if you thought he was half decent, but the dude thinks there’s no such thing as green jobs, or at least U.S. green jobs. He’s been saying those jobs, if the exist at all, are in Finland.
Well, first of all, Mr. Romney doesn’t seem to realize that there are 64,000 green jobs in his own state, Massachusetts, and “the state’s green jobs workforce grew by 6.7% from July of 2010 to July of 2011 — smashing the average 1% growth of other industries in Massachusetts.”
He also doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo on the solar power industry’s tremendous, nation-leading job growth:
- The solar energy industry is the fastest growing industry in the U.S.! It now employs more people than the coal industry.. in 5,000 companies. It is a net exporter (even to China) by $2 billion!
- Solar PV installations have grown 69% in the last year (40 times faster than the US economy as a whole).
The wind power, energy efficiency, and clean transportation industries have seen similar growth. The clean energy sector grew 8.3% nationally from 2009 to 2010. Not only that, they are well-paying jobs ($7,700 above the national median salary)….
Romney: “…So far, approximately 100 workers are employed by Fisker in Wilmington, Del., while an additional 500 are actually assembling the cars in Finland.”
Umm, sorry, but are we looking at green jobs at one company or green jobs across the United States of America at thousands upon thousands of companies?
Mitt Romney signing wind turbine via TalkMediaNews