Monday, January 11, 2010

Greening the Postal Service

Over the weekend, I blogged about the politics of green jobs. The key quote there comes from a German think tank: "Significant research shows that initial employment benefits from renewable policies soon turn negative as additional costs are incurred." In other words, new green jobs appear to benefit the economy when they are first created; however, as the higher costs of the goods and services produced by those green jobs ripple through the economy, marginal jobs in other industries are lost.

Last December Russ Carnahan (D-MO) co-sponsored a bill that will jeopardize jobs here in Missouri in this way. FederalTimes.com reported on a House bill that spends $2B on electric vehicles for Postal Service:
The bill would provide up to $2 billion for an Energy Department program in which vehicle manufacturers would compete for grants to build electric vehicles for testing by the Postal Service.
...
The bill won immediate support from the American Postal Workers Union, the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Hey look at that, the people getting your money are happy to have it! Of course, no one asked you how you feel about giving it to them. The text of the bill, H.R.4399, is at OpenCongress.org.

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