Ontario (that would be the Canadian province, not the city in California) is looking at "rolling back" green energy initiatives. (I guess they had a severe winter, also. Smile.)
With regards to job creation, there is nothing special about subsidizing electricity generation. It’s just as harmful as subsidizing anything else. We have long and lamentable experience in Canada with failed job creation schemes based on subsidies to money-losing industries. From Sprung cucumbers to Bricklin sports cars, governments have regularly learned and relearned, at taxpayer expense, the immutable rule that if a business plan depends on subsidies, the jobs it creates are not sustainable, and if the business is profitable on its own, it doesn’t need subsidies.
An industry that depends on subsidies for its survival is not a net source of jobs. The funds for the subsidies have to be raised through taxation, and the burden of taxes kills more jobs than the subsidies create. This is as true for wind power as it is for greenhouse cucumbers, and it doesn’t matter if the taxes are visible or are hidden in the form of feed-in tariffs and artificially inflated electricity bills.
No comments:
Post a Comment