Advocates of renewable energy often make claims that sound plausible but turn out to be misleading. A recent Forbes article exposes a typical such claim.
“Renewable energy advocates often claim renewable energy creates more jobs than conventional energy, but such claims are based on deception and false comparisons. In reality, renewable energy isn’t even in the same universe of job creation as conventional energy,” writes James Taylor of the Spark of Freedom Foundation.
Such claims are based on apples-to-oranges comparisons, he writes. A closer look shows the comparison is often between people directly employed in extracting conventional energy (such as natural gas) with everyone “supported” by the renewable energy industry, from janitors to lawyers to lobbyists — and the renewable energy industry sure employs a lot of the latter.
The conventional energy industry offers a host of high-paying jobs, from those who explore for oil and gas to those who build natural gas power plants to those who work on oil rigs.
The broader lesson: Listen very carefully to the claims for renewable energy. The fine print may be very deceptive.
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