I mention it every time i mention the cost of coal, and often when i mention the cost of solar or wind.

The message will only get out if it’s repeated often and in a variety of places.

If we could get people to wise up as to how much coal really costs to burn we’d be running away from it right now.

Let’s drop a ‘clean bomb’ on their butts.

He is clearly not here to discuss. There is a technical term now for these people who go to sites they obviously oppose and try to spread propaganda — “trolls.” The mission is not to discuss, but to waste people’s time and confuse the public.

I’m sorry, but I’ve logically discussed with such people for years. It goes nowhere.

Why would someone who is totally against clean energy come to a clean energy site and call it ridiculous? And do you really think such people who do so are open to factual persuasion?

But if we did limit green jobs to just the solar installer, etc, (which with an 8.3% growth rate is great) it is also true that we would undercount the new jobs held in the new clean energy economy.

Think about the new economy created around computing and the internet. Not every job created was writing code. In Kate’s piece she gives examples of the construction workers who build the server farms.

But I thought of the people who pile up eBay junk for people for resale on eBay. Is that person a junk shop owner, or was that an internet job created by the new computer economy? Likely there were not enough local customers to support the junk shop without the internet.

Now fossil fuels are becoming expensive and we are starting to understand that we cannot continue to burn fossil fuels without destroying our habitat.

Wind is now the cheapest new way to create electricity if we include all subsidies and hidden costs. Geothermal is cheaper than new nuclear or new coal. Solar is cheaper than new coal and falling below the price of new nuclear.

Wind has now become 3% of our US electricity supply. Solar is growing like gangbusters. Almost all car manufacturers are bringing EVs to market. Our largest corporation such as GE are becoming part of the the renewable energy industry.

The one portion of our economy which is growing during this prolonged economic period is renewable energy. We’re in the early years of renewables becoming mainstream and fossil fuel use falling away.

Just because a bus driver who is already driving a bus on an existing bus route is given a new “green” bus to drive doesn’t mean the driver’s job can be counted as a green energy job. Even if the driver were newly hired to drive a newly added route, I feel that the new driver’s job cannot rightly be counted as a green energy job. (Although, in either case, I would be very happy about the “green” bus.)

There are at least 2 reasons that I don’t feel it’s fair to count such a job as a green energy job:

1. The bus driver likely has no choice in the matter. The driver probably neither has a choice in the type of bus to drive, nor was the driver’s choice to drive a bus based on a desire to “help to preserve or restore the environment or conserve natural resources.”

2. If you don’t agree with the reason above, then you should at least agree with the following: if you count the job of a driver who drives a “green” bus as a green energy job, then you must count the job of a driver who does not drive a “green” bus as a fossil energy job. It’s only fair.

Given this, I would suggest that the Bureau of Labor and Statistics slightly modify their definition from “green jobs help to preserve or restore the environment or conserve natural resources.” to something similar to the this: “green jobs are for the express purpose of helping to preserve or restore the environment or conserving natural resources.”

It’s not much of a change, but the difference is the expression of intent or purpose. The bus driver does not drive a bus with the express intent to help the environment, even if the driver is an advocate for the environment. Conversely, a driver who does not drive a “green” bus does not likely drive such a bus because they want to destroy the environment nor want to be counted as a fossil energy worker.

Finally, if for no other reason, we should not count such jobs as green energy jobs so that we don’t give our opponents another reason to complain about our statistics.