Green Jobs is a feel-good buzz term that inspires visions of blending environmental kindness with job creation and economic development in our communities.
However, the reality is California really doesn’t have a strong green job industry. Other states, like next door neighbors Nevada and Arizona, have green job industries because they have built a foundation for green job manufacturing with a friendlier overall job creation environment. (Click here to watch a video of my opposition to a measure that is predicated on California’s green job myth).
Unfortunately, California has failed to create green job manufacturing because we have spent the past decade divesting our state of the once vibrant manufacturing job sector – Another 120,000 manufacturing jobs left California just this last year.
Sure we have created a few sparks of success in niche industries related to green jobs, but we do not have full-blown manufacturing jobs because manufacturers have gone to friendlier business climes.
If the California Legislature wants to make the state a serious player in the green jobs industry it should consider providing manufacturers with incentives, who in turn would provide our communities with decent paying jobs. Otherwise, the green jobs industry is nothing more than a mythical concept in California.