The Spectacle Blog
Why Doesn’t ‘Green’ Ever Produce the Savings It Says It Does?
FoxNews.com reports today on a bill sponsored by 26 House Democrats that would spend nearly $33 billion to create “green schools.”
FoxNews.com reports today on a bill sponsored by 26 House Democrats that would spend nearly $33 billion to create “green schools:”
The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act (is) sponsored by Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Ky., and 25 other Democrats. They say it would create a “healthier, safer and more energy-efficient teaching environment by requiring schools to use green materials….”
The House has passed the bill, and it now is under consideration in the Senate. The Congressional Budget Office’s estimate puts the 5-year cost of the bill at $32.9 billion.
Like nearly every other government initiative characterized as “green,” these specially constructed schools are likely to cost taxpayers far more to build and aren’t necessarily energy efficient. Last year the Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers analyzed mandates implemented in the Evergreen State and found the program lacking:
Many now admit these failures. The Superintendent of Public Instruction’s office released a report in December admitting their data could not show energy savings. A study last year of the Energy Star program by the EPA Investigator General found that claims of energy savings using that system were unreliable….
Adding insult to injury, buildings cost more to build than was promised. Advocates told the legislature that green buildings would cost an additional two percent. Interviews with facilities directors indicate the real number is six percent, which is not trivial. Each year, the state and school districts spend about $450 million on school construction. A six percent increase is about $27 million.
Consider also that many of the materials, lighting and equipment installed in “green” schools are likely subsidized by taxpayers at other levels, and the costs rise to the astronomical.
Troll Watch| 4.23.10 @ 2:14PM
Whether it is ObamasCare, green initiatives, some kind of commuter train or any other liberal pet project the same types of people do the accounting and they are incompetent. Liberals are not sustainable. They shouldn't be trusted anywhere.
Bob the Engineer| 4.23.10 @ 2:42PM
How many of the "greens" are real engineers? If a real cost analysis of these "green" projects was done, most or all would not be implemented. Wind energy does not make economic sense when the cost of back-up power generation is factored in. The back-up generation is required because the wind doesn't blow constantly.
Jeff Perren | 4.23.10 @ 2:43PM
Why is the Federal government even involved in education? Eliminate the Dept of Ed and end all Federal involvement in education throughout the country. It's not in their charter.
Flee| 4.23.10 @ 3:37PM
I wish this would happen. Defense and border control are about the only things the Fed should handle. If they want to help connect the highways then so be it but its not really required. Please eliminate Depts of Energy, Education, Endowment for the Arts, Welfare, SS, Medicare... Leave us to our own devices.
George S| 4.26.10 @ 9:42AM
The Department of Education was only a few years old when Ronald Reagan was sworn in. If he couldn't make it disappear, no one or nothing will. Repealing government bureaucracy has no historical precedent.
Pingback| 4.23.10 @ 3:47PM
The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Why Doesn't 'Green' Ever … Federal Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Becky| 4.23.10 @ 4:14PM
I have always been suspect of the green movement, because from what I have seen in the construction industry, it is mainly a marketing campaign, and plays on emotion.
I see the expensive green items in government buildings in the same light churches used to anyway, put expensive architecture, artwork, and stained glass in their places of worship. We dress our best and give our best to God, so do the green mother earth worshipers.
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Sascha H. James | 4.23.10 @ 5:55PM
Lets Finish This
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Richard Baker| 4.24.10 @ 7:40AM
Alice in Wonderland Accounting/Engineering. These "Greens" live in a world where reality is some kind of special effect, the physics notwithstanding. The idea seems to be that if it can be fantasized then it SHOULD be done, cost be damned. These folks need professional help.
Kitty| 4.24.10 @ 8:04AM
Because it's not about 'savings,' it's about control.
...
Martin Owens| 4.24.10 @ 10:33AM
Politicians are pawns in a grotesque and knavish game. If the correct pressure were applied these gentlemen would come out in favor of astrology, polygamy, or cannibalism." H.L. Mencken
Oldbull| 4.25.10 @ 3:37AM
I know it's vain to keep pointing this out, but folks, any legislation that imposes new costs on the federal government without offsetting reductions is an exercise in bad governance. We are, in a word, broke! The cupboard is bare! And yet they keep passing, or trying to pass, new spending initiatives as though they have all the money in the world.
John3| 4.25.10 @ 11:11PM
Government/s have always been very poor managers of the people's money. That is why there should be as little government as possible. Our country is a country of the people, for the people, by the people. The way I see it our country is turning into a country of the government, by the government (they propose laws and vote them in against the people's wishes) and for the government (the biggest job opening are for government jobs). NOT SUSTAINABLE. VERY UN-GREEN
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