It turns out that President Obama much-exalted “green” jobs initiative is having a hard time getting off the ground in large part due to the federal government’s own extensive regime of regulatory red tape. Investor’s Business Daily reports that a number of internal reports have shown that certain federal regulations, many of them championed by labor and environmental groups, are thwarting efforts at the state level to create these “clean tech” jobs. (Ironically, these groups are some of the biggest supporters of Obama’s green agenda.)
In 2009, Obama dedicated $7.2 billion of stimulus funds to build “clean tech” jobs. He vowed to create 5 million jobs over the next decade.
So far, that effort has “created or retained” just 7,140 jobs, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s about $1 million per job. The number is actually down from last year, when the EPA claimed 16,605 green jobs.
Audit reports by the Energy Department’s Inspector General Office offer some clues as to why: Trying to comply with federal regulations such as the Davis-Bacon Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Buy American Act has stalled many projects.
Indeed, the labor-friendly Davis-Bacon Act, which requires the federal government to prove that it is paying prevailing regional wage rates on any federally funded project, is proving to be a particularly burdensome roadblock. Consider this rather amusing passage:
An IG report found that of the $226 million awarded to California under the program, just $68 million had been spent as of June. Jobs created? Just 210.
Suzanne Garfield, spokeswoman for the California Energy Commission, told IBD those numbers are off. They have spent $57.4 million, resulting in 319 jobs, she said. That equals about $180,000 in taxpayer funds per job.
So why, exactly, has the state (California no less!) been so dramatically unsuccessful in their effort to create green jobs?
Regulations were a key reason. Federal officials were slow to give guidance, providing it piecemeal over 18 months. And Davis-Bacon laws proved dauntingly complex.
“Many of the smaller jurisdictions we are funding have never had to deal with prevailing wage (issues) so it’s been a huge learning curve for them and requires more assistance from our agency,” Garfield said.
Looking forward to the impending West Side Story brawl between the Teamsters and the Greensters.
Read the whole thing here.
Come, let us reason together!
Clearly we need to hire more Lawyers and Bureaucrats, to help the State and local people figure out how to comply with all the myriad Federal regulations.
We need to hire more bureaucrats to staff more Interagency Coordination Councils to identify and coordinate any possible conflicts between Federal Agencies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"And Davis-Bacon laws proved dauntingly complex."
if gov't spending comes in conflict with davis-bacon then that spending should be eliminated. easy peasy
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn this case I would eliminate both the spending and Davis Bacon. In this case the impact of Davis Bacon is kind of amusing, since it is interfering with the ability of Obama to dispense his crony capitalist leftist pork. But Davis Bacon also causes delays and added costs even for entirely legit fed projects. This big labor depression era monstrosity, called Davis Bacon, should be reapealed now.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDavis-Bacon was passed during the Depression to keep small minority-owned construction firms from competing with larger unionized shops. The fact that this odious law has not been repealed long ago is a testament to the power of the unions and the timidity of Congress in challenging them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDitto. Make more rules so that more government unionized workers need to be hired to keep the masses in line.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo one in Congress has the courage to repeal this act, I agree with you it should have been repealed long ago.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMickey Kaus has been dogged in his pursuit the last year or so of the full meaning and implications of Obama's acknowledgement that many projects in the stimulus were, he found out later, "not shovel ready." Kaus has also pointed out, in this context and others, that if you're a believer in government building things the Davis Bacon act is not your friend as it delays projects and raises costs.
Not just by Kaus, Davis Bacon has been cited for a year and a half as a leading reason why much of the stimulus funds, particularly in energy efficienct and green tech, had not been finished quickly. The Buy American Act (not talking here about the Buy America Act) was a Reagan-era addition to the panopoly of procurement regulation and not especially helpful, but it applies only to transportation and probably isn't a big factor here. But it is indicative of how Republicans do get into making procurement officers suffer the consequences of political theater.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Looking forward to the impending West Side Story brawl between the Teamsters and the Greensters."
I don't see the pencil-armed vegans faring too well in that one ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIndeed. More like the thugs vs. the bugs. The thugs will win going away...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe City of Los Angeles Building and Safety Department now has "green inspectors" in addition to the several others who have to sign off on construction projects. The green inspectors are not themselves sure of exactly what they should be looking for on the sites. Something about disposal of demolition debris; something about construction materials, lead in paint, asbestos in popcorn ceilings, uh....
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI thought the laws of physics were combining with economics to thwart "green" jobs.
The labor rule are an albatross on every industry, real and contrived.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSure fer godsakes let's get rid of Davis-Bacon! And the minimum wage as well!
Let's teach these working class sots a lesson! Hear hear! Tippecanoe amd Tyler too!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat lesson are they learning while they're unemployed?
I guess we'll see soon enough in the upcoming elections.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDavis bacon does nothing for the working man. It is purely a sop to big labor, to prevent lower cost, often minority run and hiring monorities, non-union outfits from being able to compete with unions. It causes huge delays and huge additional costs to any gov funded construction, and if we are really interesting in reducing the deficit it would be one of the first things to repeal. It was originally passed in the depression era to prevent construction outfits that hired blacks and legal immigrants from competing with white dominated labor unions. This act is an outdated obsenity, and your leftist snark is not a valid answer on why it should not be repealed.
As for the minimum wage, when the choice for many teenagers, and many black adults, today is not having a job at all, or repealing the minimum wage so they can have a slightly lower wage job, I think the answer is having a lower wage job. But again, for a typical leftist like you, regulation to ensure "proper" jobs is more important than having no jobs at all.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI checked the state of New Jersey website, and they already have prevailing wage figures for some crafts for the next four years. And guess what, they go up every year!! How the heck do they that the prevailing wage for a "Tile Finisher: Marble" in Jan-2013 is going to be $44 an hour in wages + $27.53 in benefits??
If you really wanted to spur employment, drop prevailing wage rates. Instead of hiring two painters at $41.80 an hour, you could hire four at $20.90 an hour. But the unions would never go for it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI used to sell tile, and when I see the term, "Tile Finisher: Marble" I read, "guy who spreads the grout."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou gotta love it. The Bamster’s Green Jobs Scam thwarted by his ever expanding bureaucracy!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe act in question was established in 1931, which means it's a little hard to blame it on Obama. Let's be sure to spread the blame fairly, on the many past administrations, Republican and Democrat, who have piled on so many straws that the camel has been squashed flat. Sure, it would be funny if this was due to a new regulation championed by this administration, but that doesn't seem to be the case. One thing that makes it very hard to have any kind of real political change is the insane focus on the "Now", instead of looking at long-term trends and policies. (Another problem is that, generally, no one, singular, regulation, in and of itself, is usually that bad (which doesn't mean it's good or necessary, just tolerable if we must), and each individual one will have someone willing to champion its necessity, but the sum of them all is utterly crippling.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDavis-Bacon regulations are a certified pain in the you-know-what, but hardly "dauntingly complex." The contracting agency issues the wage rates for the job. The contractors base their bids on them and pay them. Okay, so it's a little more complicated that than, but "dauntingly complex?" No, nor is the learning curve "huge." Who are these "smaller jurisdictions" that have never run into Davis-Bacon-type wage regulations before? California is a prevailing wage state. All public agencies from the state level on down to the local water district require prevailing wage rates.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse>>Davis-Bacon regulations are a certified pain in the you-know-what, but hardly "dauntingly complex."
They just have to be daunting enough for someone to say, "well, rather than do this project that could hire a few people, I just won't bother." If you've ever worked around government, *everything* is already massively complex and requires reams of paperwork.
In particular, the rules may be only moderately complicated but they're vague enough (what is a "prevailing" rate for an uncommon position?) to open agencies up to lawsuits.
And that's on top of the fact that if your budgets stay the same, but everything you do becomes more expensive, you are going to do less. So many projects are simply never considered, thus many jobs simply never happen.
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