Seattle's 'green jobs' program a bust

Seattle's 'green jobs' program a bust


Last year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the city had won a coveted $20 million federal grant to invest in weatherization. The unglamorous work of insulating crawl spaces and attics had emerged as a silver bullet in a bleak economy – able to create jobs and shrink carbon footprint – and the announcement came with great fanfare.

McGinn had joined Vice President Joe Biden in the White House to make it. It came on the eve of Earth Day. It had heady goals: creating 2,000 living-wage jobs in Seattle and retrofitting 2,000 homes in poorer neighborhoods.

But more than a year later, Seattle's numbers are lackluster. As of last week, only three homes had been retrofitted and just 14 new jobs have emerged from the program. Many of the jobs are administrative, and not the entry-level pathways once dreamed of for low-income workers. Some people wonder if the original goals are now achievable.

"The jobs haven't surfaced yet," said Michael Woo, director of Got Green, a Seattle community organizing group focused on the environment and social justice.

"It's been a very slow and tedious process. It's almost painful, the number of meetings people have gone to. Those are the people who got jobs. There's been no real investment for the broader public."

'Who's got the money'

The buildings that have gotten financing so far include the Washington Athletic Club and a handful of hospitals, a trend that concerns community advocates who worry the program isn't helping lower-income homeowners.

"Who's benefitting from this program right now – it doesn't square with what the aspiration was," said Howard Greenwich, the policy director of Puget Sound Sage, an economic-justice group. He urged the city to revisit its social-equity goals.

"I think what it boils down to is who's got the money."

Organizers and policy experts blame the economy, bureaucracy and bad timing for the program's mediocre results. Called Community Power Works, the program funds low-interest loans and incentives for buildings to do energy-efficient upgrades. They include hospitals, municipal buildings, big commercial structures and homes.

Half the funds are reserved for financing and engaging homeowners in Central and Southeast Seattle, a historically underserved area. Most of the jobs are expected to come from this sector.

But the timing of the award has led to hurdles in enticing homeowners to bite on retrofits. The city had applied for the grant at a time of eco-giddiness, when former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was out-greening all other politicians except for Al Gore. Retrofits glowed with promise to boost the economy, reduce consumer bills and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

"A triple win," is how Biden characterized it.

By the time Seattle won the award, homeowners were battered by unemployment and foreclosures. The long-term benefits of energy upgrades lacked the tangible punch of a new countertop. And the high number of unemployed construction workers edged out new weatherization installers for the paltry number of jobs.

"Really, we couldn't have rolled out this program at a worse time," said Greenwich, who had helped write the city's grant proposal.

"The outcomes are very disappointing. I think the city has worked really hard, but no one anticipated just how bad this recession was going to be, and the effect it was going to have on this program."

City feels 'cautiously optimistic'

As of last week, 337 homeowners had applied for the program. Fourteen had gotten a loan, or were in the process of getting one.

"Yes, we're not seeing as many completed retrofits as we wanted to," said Joshua Curtis, the city's manager for Community Power Works. "While everyone would like to see more upgrades, I think we're feeling cautiously optimistic."

He said the residential portion of program didn't launch until April. He said there was a normal summertime lull in work and that he expected things to pick up in the fall. He was confident that the city's marketing campaign and loan partner held promise.

Curtis said there were factors outside the city's control, such as the economy. And he attributed frustration among job-seekers to a "mismatch" in the timing of two federal grants.

Before the city got the $20 million, some local agencies, including Got Green, had received funds in a government push to train workers in weatherization. But the anticipation of landing career-path jobs evaporated as months went by with no work.

"People are frustrated and rightly so," Curtis said. "There's been sort of a lag time when people graduated from those programs."

They include Long Duong, 32, who got a certificate in sealing air leaks and insulating walls after he was laid off from a job handling bags at the airport. But he soon found that other men had more qualifications than him, and he took part-time gigs - installing light bulbs and canvassing doors – while waiting for work.

A year later, he's still looking.

"I haven't given up yet," said Duong, of South Seattle. "Weatherization is another opportunity for me."

Curtis said the money that financed the Washington Athletic Club and hospitals doesn't draw from funds reserved for single-family homeowners. He said the program's standards will ensure that people targeted by the program – low-income workers – will get good jobs. And he said the WAC project will create some new work in September.

"We're not where we want to be, but we have a path forward," he said.

City needs to 'step up its game'

But will the city hit its goals? Curtis was hopeful Seattle would make it by 2013, when the funding ends. Greenwich, of Puget Sound Sage, said the city needs to retrofit 100 to 200 homes a month to create 2,000 jobs. Woo, of Got Green, thinks the city needs to throw more money on incentives.

Greenwich said the energy retrofit market has turned out to be extremely complicated, with required hammering out of job standards, hiring practices, wages and how best to measure energy benefits.

"The city is really going to have to step up its game to get the 2,000 retrofits," Greenwich said.

"But if this would have been easy, it would have been done already."


http://www.komonews.com/news/local/127844048.html


More Obama fail. It's a bloody epidemic. When Obama is gone, congress must investigate where the stimulus money went.


_

 

Obama's green factory in Mass goes out of business and now his green jobs on the other side of the nation is a bust also.

Which makes the Vacationer in Chief a coast to coast failure.

 

This is great news. I hope all energy alternatives to coal and oil fail.

 

Yep, the only green job that he can create is on a golf course.

 

Let's run the numbers

$20,000,000/3 homes = $6,666,666.66 per home
$20,000,000/14 jobs = $1,428,571.42 per job

Reminds me of the $7,000,000 each to hook up 3 homes to the internet.

Obamanomics, what utter folly. And he wants to do more of the same.

 

Don't forget these guys.

 

It's not great news.

But it was predictable.

How could a gang of nerds in the White House who have all led sheltered lives in academia or government simply decree that the Age Of Alternative Energy was upon us?

 

Why is it good news that taxpayer money was wasted on such idiotic schemes?

 

...and a couple folks scraping mold off government cheese.

 

Because, with the acsendance of The Chosen One,...

" the moon was in the Seventh House, and Jupiter aligned with Mars, peace will guide the planet,and lovewill rule the stars! This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, Age of Aquarius...Aquarius....Aqaaaaaaaaaaarius...!"

...or some other such Leftninny Gooofyworld Gobbledygookthink crap...

 

To be fair, these were mostly administrative positions that pay better than some wet brain with a caulk gun.

Well done, Big Fed.

 

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/08/17/theres-nothing-new-about-green-jobs/

And this pattern gets repeated in initiative after initiative, program after program.

We're not paying for poor people to have jobs, we're paying for rent seeking bureaucrats to have jobs, attend meetings, and shuffle paper. But the "shovel ready" jobs? Nope.

This is why Conservatives call Global Warming Policy "a scam". Some may deny the science, but most who don't deny the science see policies like this fail miserably, where political and capitalist cronies get 20 million dollars split between them while the poor schmucks expecting "shovel ready" jobs never get one. I mean really, 20 million dollars split among 14 people. That's what I get out of this. Why aren't there charges and investigations??

We can blame our politicians all we want, but the fact is, the entire system from the federal, all the way to the locals, is corrupted with everyone having meetings to say "How can we get the Government to pay us today?" and even a perfect set of genius politicians can only move the bureaucratic mass so far.

 

And yet the Progressives are crying for "More Stimulus",aka throw a trillion more in the fire pits of Liberal hell to create "jobs".The only shovel being used is the hole the Left is digging for our children and grandchildren in debt.
Take a look at this solar company that went belly up after recieving stimulus funds.
Evergreen Solar Bankrupt After Getting Stimulus Cash, Promising 800 Jobs
http://patriotupdate.com/10948/evergreen-solar-bankrupt-after-getting-stimulus-cash-promising-800-jobs

Evergreen Solar Bankrupt After Getting Stimulus Cash, Promising 800 Jobs

August 16, 2011
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evergreen-solar

Evergreen Solar Inc., the Massachusetts clean-energy company that received millions in state subsidies from the Patrick administration for an ill-fated Bay State factory, has filed for bankruptcy, listing $485.6 million in debt.

Evergreen, which closed its taxpayer-supported Devens factory in March and cut 800 jobs, has been trying to rework its debt for months. The cash-strapped company announced today has sought a reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and reached a deal with certain note holders to restructure its debt and auction off assets.

And from the White House Massachusetts Progress Reports dated Apr. 22, 2009:

Facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, President Obama started his Presidency with decisive action — proposing and quickly passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Since the bill went into effect, the ARRA has already helped put money back in the pockets of 95 percent of working Americans, created and saved jobs across the country and made key investments in our community to help kickstart the economy. To ensure that the funds are spent efficiently and effectively, President Obama tasked Vice President Biden with overseeing the implementation of ARRA, and projects have already begun to come in under budget across the country. As the President prepares to introduce the details of his budget and further plans to revitalize the economy, here’s a look at how his policies have impacted Massachusetts in the first three months of his administration.

Evergreen Solar Was Hoping to Hire 90 to 100 People for Its Manufacturing Plant. “Evergreen Solar, the Marlborough-based maker of solar panels, also is hoping to hire 90 to 100 people at a manufacturing plant in Devens, said Gary Pollard, vice president of human resources. The plant, which opened last summer, is expected to employ more than 800 when it reaches full capacity.” [Boston Globe, 3/6/09]
And yet he STILL insists on throwing even more money on GREEN crap,but gives billions to Brazil to drill on THEIR shores??

 

That's what the Obama Magical Misery Tour is all about, a new stimulus. He's running around hyping it now, then will announce it in September. If the Republican oppose the spending, he will demonize them all the way to the election as being anti job. It will be time for the Republicans to delay and take it to the people, especially the failure of the first stimulus and the debt left to their children and grand children.

 

Amazing how pathetic the government is at this sort of thing isn't it. Where I used to live the government sponsored a factory that made wall siding out of straw. The place closed within two years despite the fact the technology worked and the raw material was cheaper than gypsum. Enter Dow Chemical who reopened the factory and it continues to run profitably to this day.

In Canada the list of mega-failures numbers in the thousands - everything from crap cars (Bricklin) to a failed hydroponic cucumber farm in Newfoundland.

One would almost think the government had too much money to spend and therefore didn't allocate it judiciously.

 

And yet Canada is neither deeply in deficit nor does it have ANYONE going without good healthcare.

Whatever they are doing, perhaps we should give it a try.

 

You could. Biggest difference (besides health care) is strong banking controls. We haven't had a bank failure since 1985. Also politicians can't accept donations from companies or unions.

 

GASP!!!

Without massive donations, how do your politicians develop their deeply-held, principled political convictions!???

 

Man,
politicians here would starve without donations from unions,corporations and lobbyists.They wouldnt be able to live their posh lifestyles on the $100,000 a year salary.Ever wonder why John Kerry,Pelosi,and others are worth millions,and eat Filet Mignon while we eat Hamburger Helper?All this while making themselves the champions of the poor and enemies of the rich.
Disgusting

 

While this may pass for "good" health care in Canada, I doubt it would be acceptable in the U.S.

 

Dupe:
http://www.politicalforum.com/current-events/202777-seattles-green-jobs-program-bust.html

 

So the "stimulus" was really a lie to stuff the pockets of the Left Handed?

Im shocked....

 

if anyone had bothered to do the math from the outset then it would be obvious that it would not work. The numbers were not anywhere close to what govt intervention costs.

come on now, 2,000 homes for $20 million? That's $10,000 per home. Sheesh, it would take a minimum of $25,000 in meetings per home being held by bureacrats. Based upon the $1 million plus per stimulated job, they needed at least $2 billion to properly fund the intiative.

The red flags were there so it's no surprise that less than a handful of taxpayer funded, good paying govt jobs were created.

 

the nation of Spain had a similar experience. in fact, the US ethanol program would go out of the business overnight without govt subsidies.

its time to get the US govt out of the business of picking winners and losers.

 

We subsidize ethanol $.45 a gallon. The Federal Government is the largest consumer of energy in the Nation, why won't they commit to CNG powered vehicles?