Monday, October 11, 2010

Massachusetts: Red tape preventing green jobs

I've often described the Obama administration as a jobs-killing one. But the US Environmental Protection Agency--along with the administration of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick--are even killing the green jobs that are so coveted by the Democrats.

From the Boston Herald:

In 2007 the Patrick administration touted biomass - a renewable form of heat and electricity fueled by burning waste wood - as a potential $80 million-a-year industry with the potential to create hundreds of permanent jobs and thousands of construction jobs.

Less than three years later, the administration has released proposed biomass regulations so onerous and silly, they threaten to kill the nascent industry. In the process, the governor's team is poised to waste tens of millions of dollars that has been invested by the government and the private sector.

The Patrick administration's Department of Energy Resources (DOER) is not the only government agency looking to wrap up biomass in red tape. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed an overreaching regulation that will equate biomass emissions with those of coal, if allowed to stand.

What gives when it comes to biomass? To start, a lot of green jobs. Prior to its stunning about-face on biomass, the Patrick administration projected nearly 600 new positions and some 2,250 construction jobs by 2015.
Unlike fossil fuels, biomass is renewable--and one of the goals of the Obama administration--heck, it's been the goal of every administration since Richard M. Nixon was president--is to decrease our dependence on foreign energy sources--and develop renewable ones.

But once again, the White House and the Democrats don't get it. Will they ever?

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