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So-called ‘green’ jobs are a case of easy come, easy go. The wind and solar ‘industries’ that gave birth to those jobs simply can’t survive without massive and endless subsidies, which means their days are numbered.

With the axe being taken to subsidies across the globe, their ultimate demise is a matter of when, not if.

The German wind industry is in free-fall: new construction is at a standstill, in no small part due to the fact that rural Germans are in full-scale revolt against the wind industry.

In 2019 less than 200 turbines were erected onshore and a trifling 160 are planned for 2020, so far.

Tens of thousands of those groovy ‘green’ jobs that the wind industry promised would last forever, have disappeared, almost overnight.

Seeking to cash in on America’s response to the coronavirus crisis its wind and solar power outfits tried to snare $billions out of the Trump administration’s $2 trillion coronavirus aid package. But to no avail. Now, thousands of those who have been working in the wind and solar industries are looking for work elsewhere.

When Australia’s PM, Scott Morrison determined to euthanise Australia’s economy in response to the COVID-19 virus in late March, his response to what constituted “an essential worker” was: “Someone who has a job. Everyone who has a job in this economy is an essential worker.”

Well, it appears on that definition that there’s nothing “essential” about jobs in America’s wind and solar ‘industries’, with tens of thousands of those jobs already axed, and many more to follow.

There is, of course, nothing “essential” about having windmills and solar panels; developed economies have been doing just fine without them for the best part of a century.

The US still manages to generate the bulk of its electricity from gas, coal and nuclear, enjoying reliable and affordable power that doesn’t depend on the vagaries of the weather or time-of-day.

Far from being “essential”, heavily subsidised and chaotically intermittent wind and solar (and the fleeting jobs those industries create) are starting to look like wasteful luxuries that hard-pressed economies can ill afford.

Here’s a lament on the rapid demise of all those groovy ‘green’ jobs from the wind and solar industry’s propaganda outlet, Bloomberg.

Year of clean energy job gains erased; Worse yet to come

Bloomberg

Dean Scott

15 April 2020

The clean energy sector lost 106,000 jobs in March, erasing all of its gains last year, but those initial layoffs are likely only the tip of the iceberg for coming job losses related to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report Wednesday.

Clean energy manufacturing plants “that produce everything from electric vehicles and batteries to Energy Star appliances, building materials, high-efficiency lighting equipment and solar panels and wind turbine parts” have been shuttered in recent weeks due to economic fallout from Covid-19, according to the report by E2, a clean energy advocacy group.

E2, the American Council on Renewable Energy, and other clean energy groups don’t expect congressional help anytime soon, because Congress is likely to focus next on another injection of broad economic aid to workers and small businesses. Any help for clean energy is likely to be put off until later legislation, the groups say.

The bulk of job losses now rippling through the clean energy sector in April likely won’t be known until at least early May, as economic shocks from 40-plus states that have issued stay-at-home orders deepen, said Phil Jordan, vice president of BW Research Partnership, which wrote the report for E2.

Initial Impacts Only

The April job loss numbers will likely be known sometime around the first week of May, Jordan said in a conference call with reporters.

The findings were released alongside a separate report that said the clean energy sector’s employment growth was robust in 2019, with total employment at roughly 3.4 million. U.S. clean energy saw a 2% increase in job growth last year, though down from its 4% growth in 2018.

Tina Bennett, president and CEO of CMC Energy Services, which manages energy efficiency programs for utilities in 10 states including Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, said her company lost 85% of its revenue in recent weeks.

It is providing work stoppage pay to employees as a bridge while those workers await other assistance Congress has approved, including direct payments and increased unemployment benefits, Bennett said.

Bloomberg