economy posts, articles, and infographics

Don't Believe the Fantasy Job Claims on Keystone XL: It's Not in Our Best Interest

January 14, 2012 by Nicole Lederer
with 478 views

Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable say they speak for the country’s business interests. When it comes to the Keystone XL pipeline, they most definitely do not. Nicole Lederer explains why. [read more]

Ideas for Clean Energy Job Creation

January 6, 2012 by A Siegel
with 309 views

Today, Steve Lacey at the Center for American Progress published 20 Ideas for Job Creation: Keep Focused on Clean Energy. To build on the many good (or even excellent) ideas in that list (repeated below the fold), here are ideas 21-30 of places to go for Clean Energy Jobs: Go to your mortgage broker: Ed Mazria/Architecture... [read more]

Commodities: Expensive and Volatile for the Foreseeable Future

January 3, 2012 by Tyler Hamilton
with 187 views

I touched on this McKinsey report earlier, but my most recent Clean Break column delves a bit deeper into the consultancy’s analysis of commodity trends past and future, and how this will impact the way corporations operate. —————————————————— Has the global economy entered a long period of persistently high, volatile commodity... [read more]

Learn to Love the Gas Tax

December 4, 2011 by Rob Perks
with 342 views

The North Carolina legislature just narrowly derailed a bill that would have prevented any possible increase in the state's gasoline tax. That's a good thing. By that I mean it's good that the state Senate declined to act on the bill after it passed in the House. You see, if enacted, the state's 35 cent per gallon... [read more]

Message to Durban: It's The Economy

November 30, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 178 views

What if they held a UN climate conference and no one came? That's certainly not the case at this year's COP-17 (Conference of the Parties) meeting now underway in Durban, South Africa, but with expectations for dramatic progress low, and a breakthrough on the scale needed to salvage the expiring Kyoto Protocol nearly unimaginable, it could be where the UN-led process is headed. If Durban fails to deliver the goods, it won't be because the participants were any less concerned about climate change than those at past sessions. Nor will it be because of the latest release of Climategate emails, as embarrassing as some of them should be for the scientists involved. The reason is much simpler, and it's the same one that helped Bill Clinton unseat George H.W. Bush in 1992: "It's the economy, stupid." The solution to climate change is unlikely to be found in Durban or any future COP site until the leaders in Brussels, Washington and other capitals come to grips with the massive economic challenges they face and create the framework for a return to robust growth. [read more]

5 Misconceptions About Peak Oil

November 7, 2011 by Robert Rapier
with 635 views

I have just returned from the annual ASPO conference in Washington, D.C. This was only my 2nd ASPO conference; the first one I attended was in 2008 in Sacramento. There were many familiar faces; some of whom I had previously met and some I only knew by reputation. The mood seemed remarkably calmer than in 2008. That year, oil prices were... [read more]

"Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" Rhetoric Hampers Renewable Development

November 4, 2011 by Michael Giberson
with 266 views

If you believed what politicians say about green energy and jobs, you probably think they fit together like peanut butter and jelly squished between layers of bread. Has there been a renewable power subsidy announcement or ribbon-cutting ceremony where the word “jobs” was not featured in the first two or three sentences uttered by... [read more]

Is Western Society Suffering from a Collective Anxiety Attack? OccupyWallStreet may be an Expression of Just That

October 1, 2011 by Tyler Hamilton
with 152 views

I wrote the post below a week or so ago and thought later I should take it down because it was too negative. In fact, a few people unsubscribed to this blog immediately after I posted it. I do like to use this blog to build hope that there are technologies, policy options, and creative initiatives out there to make the world a more... [read more]

Weighing the Evidence on Environmental Regulation Versus Jobs

September 30, 2011 by Shira Honig
with 230 views

Among the Republican Party candidates vying to contest Obama in the 2012 presidential election, there is a recurring theme: the idea that environmental regulation prevents job creation. While only one candidate attacked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the most recent Tea Party Express debate, Herman Cain’s comment that the agency has “run wild” drew enthusiastic applause. The notion that there is a tradeoff between jobs and the environment is not new, but it is a powerful argument when job growth has been painfully slow, and when immediate economic concerns understandably outweigh long-term and complex environmental ones. It draws political points easily as it taps into voters’ struggles and fears. [read more]

Renewable Energy Faces the European Debt Crisis

September 18, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 947 views

With all the bad economic news and political turbulence in the US, it's been easy to lose track of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, which appears to be spreading from smaller, peripheral countries like Greece to affect the banking systems of core European Union members like Italy and France. To read Paul Krugman's column in last Sunday's New York Times, Europe could be on the verge of another financial crisis on the scale of the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Aside from the global economic consequences of such an event, it would send ripples throughout the energy sector, affecting both conventional and renewable energy markets and participants. While such an outcome is far from certain, it's a worrying scenario to contemplate. [read more]

The American Jobs Act's Poison Pill(s)

September 13, 2011 by Geoffrey Styles
with 584 views

I had a completely different topic in mind for today's posting, but I'll have to come back to the energy implications of a potential European financial crisis later. Since President Obama's jobs speech to Congress last week I have been awaiting the text of the actual proposed bill, rather than the summaries I'd been seeing. It finally... [read more]

JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!

September 9, 2011 by A Siegel
with 717 views

We are less than two days out from President Barack Obama’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress and to the nation to outline proposals to help put Americans back to work. This speech could be a strident call for all-out measures to reinvigorate American employment, a more limited set of programs constructed and conceived within a... [read more]

Keeping Michele Bachmann Honest on Gas Prices

August 22, 2011 by Robert Rapier
with 338 views

Like many of you, I am often unhappy with our political leaders. One thing that annoys me the most is that many will say or do just about anything to get elected. By now, you have surely heard the news that Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann has promised a return to $2/gallon gasoline if she is elected president: [read more]

How Can Washington Green America's Economy?

August 18, 2011 by Jesse Jenkins
with 409 views

Before discussing the best way to green the economy, it’s important to note that the U.S. economy has been greening steadily over the past three years. Buoyed by the policies established and extended by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the largest federal investment in clean tech in American history, the clean energy industry has experienced precipitous growth, as documented by Mark Muro and colleagues at the Brookings Metro program in their recent "Sizing the Clean Economy" report. [read more]

Northeast Clean Fuels Standard = Thousands of Jobs, Billions of Dollars

August 17, 2011 by Nathanael Greene
with 257 views

An economic analysis done for 11 northeast and mid-Atlantic states shows that a clean fuels standard (CFS) is a winning idea for the region. It could save consumers in the region billions, bring in billions more in revenue for these states, and create up to 50,000 jobs per year – dramatically increasing the region's self-... [read more]