Our middle class is battered, bruised and on the ropes perhaps, but ready and willing to get back to work to make America strong once more.
I can only speak to the construction industry I know. One segment, power plant construction, is a bastion of good paying middle class jobs, and it’s on hold. I’m talking about carpenters and steel workers, welders and electricians, heavy equipment operators and safety specialists and the myriad of other specialties and the engineers, purchasing agents and office workers who make any construction project function efficiently. That’s home town, good paying jobs I’m talking about.
Those good jobs don’t stop at the plant gates. Thousands of people are involved outside the plant, supplying everything from paper towels to steel girders to heavy generators that fill heavy duty flat beds to their capacity. Trucks line up each day bringing thousands of tons of needed equipment and material from plants with good paying jobs all across the USA. Well paid train engineers, fork lift operators and truck drivers, both local and national, deliver the products and then turn around and purchase new trucks. This list of people involved in a single plant would fill a note book.
The local economy sees increased business supplying the projects. Then your motels, restaurants and rental properties are filled once more. New homes are in demand and your local contractors will thrive again. The projects purchase tens of millions of dollars from local businesses and whether its office supplies or welding equipment, local, good paying jobs are created.
When the facility is built it has to be staffed and this calls for more local participation and again provides long term, good paying jobs.
So why aren’t we building the plants we need right now?
Government bureaucrats insist on switching to renewable energy that cannot replace conventional power plants and cost a fortune in taxes for every American. No one seems to report the closure of current power plants due to both age and EPA mandates. No one seems to tell the public that for every wind and solar facility we build we must have 100% back up with conventional plants to keep the lights on. Solar doesn’t work at night and windmills don’t turn when the wind stops blowing. Existing plants put out more pollution when backing up renewable power because they can’t run as efficiently as their design intended. This is a lose/lose situation for all of us.
We hear on the news that the economy is getting better. Yet, we all know people out of work and probably know someone who has lost their home. Check out the housing market and you find an American disaster. This year we’ll continue to see higher foreclosure numbers because people can’t find good paying jobs. Unemployment has shown some improvement but look at the numbers and you find most of the new jobs are not high paying middle class jobs. Look behind the scenes and you’ll find a government that talks about middle class jobs and then shuts down the job market for the best middle class jobs.
I have spoken of the industry I know. If my industry has these problems I feel certain people in our community can share similar stories about their areas of expertise.
Let me leave you with the Xcel pipeline which is somewhat out of my area of expertise but exhibits similar results. Three years of study to approve construction and create 20,000 to 40,000 good paying middle class jobs have been shut down by this administration for more study. This pipeline was meant to bring friendly Canadian oil to our refineries across the country. The Canadians were even going to pay to install it. The same advantages mentioned previously would apply with additional jobs to feed, clothe, and house these new workers. Good paying American middle class jobs would be created providing the pipe and the myriad other necessities required, putting our people back to work.
This is an American tragedy that is a self inflicted wound. Tens of thousands of these jobs could be created by the end of the year with millions next year. And that’s only in power plant construction!
Ross Boring
Brainerd
Comments (16)
Add commentAs many or more workers could
As many or more workers could be put to work retrofiting our buildings to meet a higher energy efficiency code without bringing dirty oil from Canada to refineries so that the gasoline it produces could be exported out of the US.
We don't have any more time to waste before we address climate change.
Interesting study...
...as scientific literacy goes up, the tendency to become hysterical over global warming goes down.
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1547.html
Maybe you should read a good science book, Fish.
So Mr. Boring, where exactly
are these "good paying jobs"? You speak of the area you know, but you throw out a lot of rhetoric, with no real substance.
Not quite muehlbau,
the study says that people will conform their beliefs to their peer groups regardless of information available. Try reading beyond the first paragraph.
Missing the point, fish and pdnet
Fish - Mr. Boring makes the point that power plants are still required to back up any "green" energy alternative and that they're not starting new ones because of EPA mandates; the old ones can no longer run as efficiently as they were designed to run, thereby creating more pollution. As for exporting it out of the US, talk to Mr. Obama about that.
The jobs, pdnet, aren't there because of the government bureaucracy has shut them down.
Why build more power plants when they feed into a failing grid
Thinking back ,seems to me the stimulus money was injected into the economy so it didnt crash ( much still not spent) that our Tea Party Folks - like Chip Cravaack and Michelle Bachman , thought then and continue to say it is just plain BAD ,was originally intended for infastructure repair and upgrades. The power grid in the USA needs much work to move around the power generated already . Stimulus money does create jobs and actually kept the country going after the Bush Wars and Tax Cuts nearly destroyed it. Maybe the power grid in NH where Chip moved to is better.
Xcel Energy vs. Keystone XL
Xcel has nothing to do with the Keystone XL Canadian oil pipeline project. The latter project has 2 segments. One is from Hardesty, Alberta to Steele City, NE; the other is from Cushing, OK to the Gulf.
Nearly all MN oil products are made from that "dirty" Canadian oil which comes from Alberta via the Alberta Clipper pipeline. No involvement by Xcel which is in the electric power and natural gas business.
Rolf
We don't need many new power plants
Mr Boring asks, "So why aren’t we building the plants we need right now?"
The answer is that we have ample power capacity and don't need many new plants. Electric power demand is flat in the US.
Some natural gas plants are being built to replace coal plants. There are also six nuclear plants in the mill - 2 in Georgia; 2 in South Carolina; and 2 in the TVA system.
New wind and solar are having a small effect. they are up from 1% of our electric power to about 3% in 2011.
Fishhead'll
filet you for that comment, rolf. He believes that your yard light is killing Mother Earth in his yard.
If we reduced our waste and
If we reduced our waste and increased efficiency we could save at least 30% of the electricity generated and maybe even be able to "conserve" our energy sources for future use.
That's a novel idea; conservation, isn't it conservatives?
My statement was accurate, Chey...
Did you miss this in the first paragraph?
"Members of the public with the highest degrees of science literacy and technical reasoning capacity were not the most concerned about climate change"
As for the tendency of this same group to be more freedom loving than their less scientifically literate brethern, I'd say that's an extension of their superior intellect and education.
My family is loaded with engineers with advanced degrees and they just marvel at the lack of scientific sophistication of some of the global warming fanatics so these findings don't surprise me at all.
I know the Marxists would like to turn the global warming discussion into a class battle rather than deal with evidence, but the fact remains that people who have the most sophisticated understanding of science don't believe it's as big a problem as those with less understanding (or who are riding the global warming research funding gravy train).
Thanks to all for your comments
As a first time contributor I am most grateful to all who took the time to comment. I also appreciate the correction from Xcel to Keystone on the pipeline. I knew better and mispoke. It is true that power consumption is currently flat but power plants like any man made item do have a finite life cycle. In addition to normal plant retirement an additional 30 plants and counting have been shuttered over the past year by a combination of rulings and pressure from the EPA and the Sierra Club. New plants can be constructed in a couple of years but the reality is that from engineering to construction they require up to 3 additional years from concept to production. The Electric Grid is truly is sad shape and needs upgrading but it's all we have for now. We need green energy for our future but it is simply not available to replace current facilities and it will be years until it is.
Which is it, Mr. Boring,
Which is it, Mr. Boring, "20,000 to 40,000 new jobs", "tens of thousands of new jobs", or "millions of new jobs"? Check back in with Lush Gasbag or Hannity/Faux News to obtain a more precise figure and let us know.
Not to be dismissive, as most all new jobs and forms of employment are welcome, but best estimates indicate only a few thousand new jobs re: the pipeline. Also keep in mind the proposed pipeline crosses numerous state boundaries requiring state's approval and Nebraska has yet to green-light this project.
Nice to see you back promoting the far-right, bible-banger agenda, muehly. Thanks for the amusement!
How Many Jobs?
The number of jobs, 20,000 to 40,000, were estimated by local, state, federal and union studies. I just chose to report the range. These jobs were only for the pipeline.
The jobs in the power industry are based on my personal experience working in the supply side of the industry for 50 years. May I respectfully suggest you contact your closest union officials regarding jobs for pipefitters, laborers, equipment operators, electricians, carpenters etc. in the power industry. They could best provide the numbers of their members who have suffered through the past 3 years of no new power construction and supply figures for their members sitting on the bench waiting for work.
In prior years there have been hundreds of thousands of craft personnel employed in power construction and often millions.
Views of the technically educated.
The vast majority of scientists are concerned about human generated green house gases and their impact on the earth's temperature.
We should also note Gallup's poll this month on evolution. 46% of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years. Among Republicans the number goes to 60%. The only group which largely disagrees with this position are the ones with advanced degrees.
Our public education system has a lot of work to do.
Global warming lecture September 11
For Meuhlbau and others who would like to learn how gases with 3 or more atom molecules respond to the earth's IR and warm us, I will be giving a lecture on the subject for Unlimited Learning in Crosby on September 11. All attendees will receive a handout with diagrams showing the carbon cycle and the ways in which green house gases function. There are still many unknowns as we try to forecast future climate, and these will be presented without advocacy.
Rolf