Editorial: Germans go green, swapping higher energy prices for jobs

Published 10:54 am Monday, November 30, 2009

Monday, Nov. 30, 2009

While we Americans continue to debate the existence of climate change, Germany is far ahead of us traveling down that road.

It’s hard to imagine Americans paying the price ordinary Germans are for having one of the world’s most aggressive global warming campaigns.

According to the Washington Post, a kilowatt of electricity costs three times as much as in the United States and a gallon of gasoline will set you back $8 thanks to 50-percent “eco taxes.”

Germans pay high energy taxes to discourage use and to help fund renewable energy development.

Families manage these costs by unplugging every appliance but the refrigerator at night, limiting driving and scrimping on customary steam baths.

The flip side of such steep costs is job creation, such as a 145-year-old mining equipment manufacturer which retooled its assembly lines to turn out 30-ton gearboxes for wind power generation.

The industry is heavily subsidized, but it has generated hundreds of thousands of jobs consumers paid for through higher energy bills.

With a climate summit approaching in Copenhagen, Europe’s most populous nation offers an interesting case study for what might happen to a major economy adhering to a greener path.

One thing is clear. Where Germans taxed consumers directly, bills pending in Congress place the U.S. financial burden for cleaner energy squarely on utilities.

By 2020, U.S. power companies would be mandated to increase the share of electricity produced from renewable resources from 9 percent to 15 percent – a level Germany is already at.

Critics argue such measures will drive up energy bills because utilities will pass those extra costs on to consumers.

Even more jobs will be shed by industries coping with stricter emission standards.
Germany has succeeded in cutting carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels. U.S. emissions increased 6 percent during the same time frame.

Germany, which exports more than China, shook off the global recession faster than the United States.

As new markets emerged for efficient building materials and renewable energy, even Germany’s harshest green policies critics concede more jobs have been created than lost.
The renewable sector, including one of the globe’s biggest solar industries in a nation not known for sunshine, employs 260,000 – already a fourth the size of the auto workforce.
Some old steel mills churn out solar panels.

Demand for new wind farms enabled one company to double its workforce since 1995.
Those who can afford it use solar panels or heat pumps to generate much of their own power, saving so much on energy bills that they recoup their initial investment of $8,000 to $20,000 in less than 10 years.

At least in 10 years they won’t still be arguing about whether global warming is a real threat or hype.