Special Report
Green Math Is Bad Math
How Washington is wasting huge sums on “green” initiatives — and pretending it’s coming out ahead.
On the front page of the New York Times’ online edition Sunday was an artist’s rendering of the pride and joy of the federal General Services Administration: a renovated federal building in Portland, Ore., that features plants growing up all 18 stories of one side.
“They will bloom in the spring and summer when you want the shade, and then they will go away in the winter when you want to let the light in,” Bob Peck, commissioner of public buildings for the G.S.A., told the Times, adding, “Don’t ask me how you get them irrigated.”
Don’t ask how much they cost, either.
I told you not to ask.
OK, I’ll tell you: The entire renovation costs $133 million. The plants are only one component, but the G.S.A. admits that the renovation is being undertaken for the purpose of making the building “green.” Done as a project of the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, the renovation is Oregon’s largest federal stimulus project.
The Obama administration proudly boasts that the effort will dramatically reduce the building’s energy use, thereby saving federal taxpayers $280,000 a year in energy costs.
Now here comes the fun part.
Nowhere in the article did The New York Times bother to do the math. So I did. (It wasn’t hard, I did it on my Blackberry while setting out for a winter hike.) To recoup its investment in this renovation, the government will have to keep the building running for the next 475 years.
Look on the bright side. Everything after year 476 is gravy!
As Joe Vaughan, a Portland commercial real estate developer, told The Times, “As a taxpayer, I think it’s a horrible waste of money that no private developer would undertake.”
The G.S.A response?
“The idea is that the cost savings are in the energy efficiency,” Caren Auchman, a spokeswoman for the G.S.A., uselessly told the Times, which did not question the validity, or sanity, of that statement.
To provide a little perspective, the taxpayers are going to shell out $133 million — more than half the cost of the nearby Rose Garden Arena, where the Portland Trailblazers play — so the government can annually save the taxpayers $68,000 less than the combined yearly salaries of Oregon’s two U.S. senators.
This is what passes for a good “green” investment in Washington these days.
This is only one tiny example of the type of cost-benefit analysis being promoted in Washington in the name of saving the planet.
About the Author
Andrew Cline is editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader. His Twitter ID is @Drewhampshire.
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John - TMF| 2.1.10 @ 7:49AM
"Green" applied as an adjective to a number of terms: Energy, Jobs, Architecture, Planning, etc. is accurately defined as noting the massively increased cost and reduced efficiency of the activity being modified.
There might be a slang noun "Green" added to the mix as well. Meaning the money flowing into the pockets of the politicians, government, academia, and other dependent toady corporations from the surcharge added to any product or service related.
If Energy costs X, Green Energy will always cost X(g) g-for the green factor the greener the factor the higher the cost.
Green is for rich people with a huge amount of excess cash with which they can purchase good feelings and pagan religious indulgences.
r/TMF
Ted| 2.1.10 @ 11:28PM
I think your g-factor requires an added term for increased CO2 emissions. Assuming there is no harmful impact to economic activity by the incremental costs of taxes and regulatory schemes, there is more CO2 emitting business activity (E) required to pay for going green (g)—perhaps leaving energy costs as (X+E) g.
KungFuSV| 2.2.10 @ 5:16PM
Umm ... who *cares* about emissions of CO2 since that's an *integral* part of the whole life cycle on Earth anyway (more CO2 is better for plants) ... this *obsession* about CO2 has been such a *hoax* and *fraud* being perpetrated as the "cause" of anthropogenic global warming (AGW)! Climategate has amply exposed AGW to be a fabrication of those who want to push yet another *scam* and *fraud* called carbon footprints and credits (just another scheme to impose yet another *tax* upon humanity by those leftist progressive *elitists*)! Everyone must WAKE UP and STOP being brainwashed by those elitists who want to take over everyone's lives!
Ted| 2.3.10 @ 10:11PM
"Umm ... who *cares* about emissions of CO2 since that's an *integral* part of the whole life cycle on Earth anyway[?]"
Not me.
Louis Jenkins| 2.1.10 @ 8:45AM
There are several things that come to mind when using the term Green. Money being the first, and bovine excretment being the second. As Mr. Cline points out, this effort at being economical makes no sense at all. But when has it ever? The elitist Hollyweed crowd, statist media, and the leftists will be the only ones feeling good, meanwhile the taxpayers/middle class/business will shoulder the load. Kermit the frog summed it up, "It ain't easy being green," unless you're using another person's money.
owyheewine| 2.1.10 @ 9:31AM
Rational analysis doesn't have any place in the environmentalists religious devotion to"green". Even though these nuts keep resurfacing like the target in Whack a Mole, we have no choice but to keep knocking down their lunacy.
donserge| 2.1.10 @ 9:37AM
The facts in the article are not surprising when one considers you are dealing with a dumbed down, ignorant and at times downright stupid electorate. Re-claiming our school system is the only long term answer to this garbage.
Les Hardie| 2.1.10 @ 8:20PM
It wasn't a "stupid, ignorant electorate" that wasted this money, but brilliant bureaucrats who know best. Don't blame the voters, blame the unelected officials who signed off on this porkfest. Teaparty, anyone?
Cliff Thatcher | 3.25.10 @ 10:08AM
How can we NOT blame the voters? Without the ignorance of those who refuse to look at the candidates, then vote them in to office because it makes them feel good about themselves, we wouldn't have these politicians writing these B.S. peices of legislation. I understand wanting to put the blame solely on those in office, but alas, they are not alone in this and if we want to be intellectually honest about it, we must take some of the blame for this mess and place it squarely on the shoulders of those who voted these traitors into office over the past 50+ years.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 2.1.10 @ 10:20AM
A Portland, Oregon Federal Building features plants growing up one side of its 18 stories. Totally overlooked in calculating the potential savings to our gum’mint on the verge of passing a record deficit laden budget bill as soon as obummer can locate a cut of 11¢ is that these plants depend on CO2, a known deadly greenhouse gas. In order to keep these plants alive, it will be necessary to fund a herd of oxygen breathers to pass a sufficient amount of this deadly gas. Any excess will, of course, punch a big hole in the ozone rendering all our sun screen ineffective. In the meantime, according to Glenn Beck this morning, obummer’s budget depends on gum’mint revenue from cap and tax to act as toilet paper plugging up the bleeding in our economy after obummer shaves it.
On another note, those who read my ramblings last Thursday, suffered through a long announcement of the Gill O’Teen Haiku Contest for 2010. Anyone who thinks they can create haiku, a poem of three lines with the first and last lines consisting of exactly 5 syllables and the middle line consisting of exactly 7 syllables, is welcome to participate. Those liking a pdf copy of the rules and a lesson plan I compiled on how to write haiku need do no more than send me an email request.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com
Celebrate Galt Day 4/15/2 Yo (aka 2010 A.D.)
burry obummer
will cut his gum’mint spending
When lipsticked pigs fly
John II| 2.1.10 @ 10:40AM
Obamanation
Awaits the unsuspecting
Voter in the street.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 2.1.10 @ 11:15AM
I just attempted to reply to John II’s reply but it was stifled by an Am Spec censorship protocol. I’ve been posting comments for over a year and never encountered this problem before. What’s going on? Is Am Spec trying to emulate the censors over at American Thinker?
All I wrote was a reminder that no matter how good a haiku is, and John’s is quite good, it cannot win the contest unless it’s entered.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com
Don’t Tread on Me
John II| 2.1.10 @ 4:56PM
But what about our blog cover, Gill? I mean, privacy and protection from cranks and stuff? You wouldn't expect Clark Kent to wave his real moniker around, would you? Wait! I feel another inspiration coming:
How can entry be
without revelation of
one's identity?
Tony in Central PA| 2.1.10 @ 1:53PM
Administration
Socialist legacy blooms
Green jobs and red ink
John II| 2.1.10 @ 6:44PM
Obama cannot
see the many tricks he wields
already rebound.
(Isn't it stimulating when two great poets come together to discourse on the state of the world?)
Ray| 2.1.10 @ 2:10PM
I wonder if they realize that they're going to be hit, big time, with the Law of Unintended Consequences by this foolish proposal to place plants over the the exterior of the building.
By placing those plants immediately adjacent to th building, as they are proposing, they're going to increasing the cooling costs as opposed to decreasing them. This is because those plant will, by their very nature, block air circulation and will trap warm, moisture laden air right next to the building. This will, of course, force the building engineers to run their air conditioning systems even harder in order to remove the extra heat that trapped, moisture laden air is releasing into the building through radiation and convection. It will also kill the plants. Those plants need that air circulation to cool themselves, just as a building does.
Instead of reducing the cooling costs, they'll be increasing it. Instead of saving energy, they'll be wasting it. Instead of solving the problem, they'll be exasperating it. And they'll kill the plants to boot! All because they've forgotten the first rule of horticulture: NEVER plant vegetation next to buildings! It's bad for the plants, and it's worse for the buildings!
JanineC| 2.1.10 @ 9:25PM
Besides that, the moisture and hot air trapped against the building will also make the building deteriorate faster. They will have a crumbling, rotting building that can't be kept up on top of it all. Stupid leftists...they know nothing. And don't even get me STARTED on their complete ignorance of economics!!!
Dr. Phibes| 2.2.10 @ 3:14PM
Can You Say Malignant Mold Spores??
Bill| 2.1.10 @ 10:35AM
Anything this dumb has to have Gore involved in the process. All these people need to take a one way trip to Cuba where life in the sun is perfect!!!
pugsley| 2.1.10 @ 11:03AM
I always get such a warm reassuring feeling when the government refers to our hard earned tax dollars as their revenue.
Neo| 2.1.10 @ 11:23AM
I think "green" applies to the quality of the jobs
Christopher Holland| 2.1.10 @ 8:14PM
They are called green jobs because that is the colour of peoples' faces when they see the size of the bill they have to pay. Green job is just another way of saying green tax and there is never anything green about taxes. You still have the government's hand on your wallet and don't expect to go away soon.
Tony in Central PA| 2.1.10 @ 1:19PM
Years from now, and it may not be that many years, people will look back at the 00's and early o10's and cackle about the term " green ' in the same way people laugh about other fads that came and went, proving the conventional wisdom witless. So whether its " green " anything, Don Johnson's acting ability, leisure suits, Hillary Clinton healthcare proposal, Vanilla Ice, Beta Max, etc, it will all be found in the Bargain Bin 'O Laughs in the National Memory Bank.
Ray| 2.1.10 @ 1:23PM
"They will bloom in the spring and summer when you want the shade, and then they will go away in the winter when you want to let the light in."
That's what window shades are for. You don't even need to fertilize them, water them, and rake up their dead leaves in the fall.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against tress. I planted one myself in my back yard, but I didn't do it to shade the house! I did it to shade the yard.
By the way, it takes about 20 years for trees to grow high enough to offer an appreciable amount shade to a large building. Until they mature, they offer little to no benefit to the heating and cooling costs. I wonder if the "experts" take that into consideration when they do their calculations as to how much they'll save?
Danny| 2.1.10 @ 2:16PM
I've got nothing against pointing out a bad idea, but the payback analysis in this article is a little too simple. I'm assuming that the renovation to this building was already determined to be necessary before any additional energy savings were chosen. The payback analysis should then only compare the energy savings ($280k/year) to the additional cost of energy efficiency over standard construction. In other words, if the renovation to this building using normal construction were to cost say $124.6 mil and the energy efficiency portions increased the cost of renovation by $8.4 mil, then the payback is really $8.4mil/$280k or 30 years. I used nice round numbers to simplify the calculations, nothing based upon facts.
I'm wondering who's raking up the leaves in the fall that come from 18 stories or so of vines.
Ray| 2.1.10 @ 4:48PM
I'm wondering who's going to pay for the medical costs of the treatments of Legionnaire's disease the proposed "environmentally friendly" rain-water collection and storage systems will cause. You don't collect and store rain water, dirty water, and then release later it without causing the bacteria that's living in the collected, stagnate water to be released as well. Yet this is just what their planning for the "green" building! Do these people ever think things through? They don't call it "brown water" for nothing!
Oldefarte| 2.1.10 @ 3:33PM
The only definition of 'GREEN' that I can discern is something that is socialistic and a complete waste of taxpayer money!!!!
Jim Hlavac | 2.1.10 @ 3:50PM
I'm wondering who is going to clean up the green guano from any birds that will start to call this vine wall home. Or is it good to have federal workers hit with what they often hand out? The bugs these vines might attract will be good for local life too, I'm sure. Yeah, right. And when in bloom the busy bees will be coming my the hundreds, to sting if disturbed while sipping nectar. And mosquitos rearing young in every wetted nook and cranny.
Karcarius| 2.1.10 @ 4:16PM
You are so right Mr. Cline,the green math doesn't work at all.That's why in a free-market society like ours,green energy hasn't risen because it's too expensive to produce.Here's a Glenn Beck video where he talks about green math and how it doesn't work.Just click on the Green Math video on the right.
http://www.glennbeck.com/conte.....017/766352
Northern Rebel| 2.1.10 @ 5:00PM
I confess. I am a 52 yr old high school dropout, that had to go to work when my mother died, in 1975.
I became one of the finest Tool & Die makers in the country, despite my lack of a diploma. Now, my job is pretty much obselete, due to the invention of computer numeric controlled machinery.
As a result, I am a perfect candidate for Osama Obama's policies. Who needs gummint intervention more than a pathetic old man like me?
SORRY!
I would rather die in an alley covered in ratshit, than allow the piece of garbage we are forced to call "President", to destroy the foundation America was built upon!
I imagine if our founding fathers saw what he was attempting to do to the Constitution of The United States of America, they would challenge him to a duel, and happily shoot him in the head.
(disclaimer) I own no weapons, and I'm not a violent nut. Stay away Osama Obama Chicago thugs.
JanineC| 2.1.10 @ 9:19PM
I'm with you, Rebel!
tigerfreak | 2.1.10 @ 5:10PM
Green jobs are not the only hole for taxpayers' money. It appears our esteemed House Speaker has been giving her family free rides on Air Force planes...and we are footing the bill.
tigerfreak| 2.1.10 @ 5:11PM
Here's the link:
http://thehayride.com/2010/01/.....-of-house/
Tony in Central PA| 2.1.10 @ 5:52PM
A Spainish company called Gamesa built a bunch of wind farms on the ridges near my town. It hasn't exactly created a job boom. If the things work so well, why are half of them not turning most of the time I drive by ?
Tony in Central PA| 2.1.10 @ 5:56PM
I meant " Spanish ".
michigander_sandusky| 2.1.10 @ 5:59PM
Any politician that doesn't believe we should be pushing dirt for 30 new nuclear powerplants and building dozens of new offshore oil drilling rigs is not serious about the U.S.'s energy independence and strategic interests.
Charles Stevens| 2.1.10 @ 8:45PM
I question the DOE's study on windmills, and would like to see the engineering assumptions behind it. The best objective studies I have seen indicate that 'green energy' cannot possibly replace more than ~15% of any advanced society's total energy needs. The reasons for this are fixed by such issues as energy density and power loss over distance, all firmly based on physical laws of thermodynamics.
That last is the crux of the matter. Physics ignoramuses like Obama depend on political opportunists like Steven Chu to pretend that they and other progressives can repeal the laws of thermodynamics. Then like King Canute, they can stand on the shores of the sea and proclaim to hold back the tides.
JanineC| 2.1.10 @ 9:17PM
This is "Progressivism" at it's best! Leftism, progressivism, socialism...they are all related concepts and they are all terms applied to an elite class of people who think they are better than the rest of us and who want to create a world that THEY control at our expense. The "Progressives" have taken over almost the entire Democrat party (and a lot of Republicans too) and their mission is to completely destroy this nation. We need to weed them ALL out. It is the most evil movement ever to touch this country.
Pingback| 2.1.10 @ 9:36PM
In the News – 02/01/2010 « Rainy Skies links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
JeffT| 2.2.10 @ 12:37PM
The entire "green" movement is a fraud. There is nothing true about anything this religious movement tells us. From the fake e-mails, the lies of Jones, Mann, et.al., to the fake reports based on one or two anecdotal "sightings," to the railroad engineer leading the movement at the U.N., it is one BIG fraud. Nothing adds up, nothing works right and none of this will ever help us meet our enormous energy needs.
joeblough| 2.2.10 @ 2:15PM
No serious people believe the green crap. It's simply another pretense for attacking civilization, specifically western civilization.
Its philosophical roots can be traced to Jean Jacques Rousseau, the noble savage and the beauties of "nature" and all that. Pretty thin stuff. But the bastards who promote the stuff probably have no awareness of that.
The greenies are nihilists. Nihilists with oh so precious slogans perhaps, but nihilists just the same. Nasty.
Math? Hah!
eRtwngr | 2.2.10 @ 4:13PM
There's practically a leak a day about the fraudulent green industry.
Read: "Global Green Conspiracy Continues to Unravel" http://bit.ly/aIRY7w
ptort| 2.2.10 @ 4:34PM
What would I do if someone was trying to sell me a $20,000 solar panel setup for my house with the promise that it would knock $42 off my power bill a year? Slam the door in his face after rotflmao.
Mnestheus| 2.2.10 @ 7:58PM
The ancient pond
A frog jumps in
Let's boil the water
keyboard555| 2.2.10 @ 8:27PM
Maybe Al Gore and his greenie friends will come an scoop up the bird crap, falling from these lovely plants and vines.
Maybe they will stand out front and hand out netting, to those using the new green building.
I woke up, this was only a dream, but it seem so real. Wait , maybe Al and greenies will fly to another planet in their green machine. Just another dream.
Whit| 2.3.10 @ 1:21AM
There is another definition of green -- not ripe. A green hand was one who had no job experience. These green projects fall in that category. It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention but who is the father? What made it necessary?
I don't have the room to expand on this thought but will point out that all of our business growth came by developing something that became a necessity in one way or another. There are niches for some of this green technology but let the market do the selecting, not the government. All the government need do is keep order. We do this on our highways and we can do in in our commerce but we can't do it pushing green jobs like pushing water uphill. It doesn't flow in that direction so we put it in a pipe and then add pressure, laws in the case of our green movement.
We are aware of environmental concerns and doing a good job addressing those concerns. The environmental movement has a different agenda.
Maybe you can pick up from here and keep going.
Whit
Hydraulic Tools | 2.3.10 @ 10:34AM
Manufacture Hydraulic Tools, offer from hydraulic crimping tool, cable cutter, pipe bender, gear puller, hole digger and hand pumps.
ROUSS| 2.10.10 @ 5:08PM
If you are focused on math of the project, it would be nice to state exactly how much money is spend on making it green and how much of it simply renovation of the building. I am sure if doesn't cost $133M for planting trees.
Pingback| 2.11.10 @ 12:40AM
Year-Round Schools Make Sense - 1975 Editorial links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
explosion proof light | 11.15.10 @ 9:22AM
Actually, Abraham Lincoln was just as radical but in a different way. Ditto FDR.
Converse | 8.12.11 @ 4:20AM
is good