The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, (ARRA) or known in many circles as the stimulus was the spending of $831 billion of your tax dollars. And what did we get in return for that
English: United States President Barack Obama signs into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as Vice President Joe Biden looks on. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
investment?
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located in Golden Colorado, reported on the $9 billion in your taxpayer dollars and how they were spent. The report entitled, “Preliminary Analysis of the Jobs and Economic Impacts of Renewable Energy Projects Supported by the 1603 Treasury Grant Program,” covers the more than 23,000 projects to which funds were distributed. The report has some interesting overall findings.
The majority of the jobs were temporary jobs, performing construction and installation work at the green energy facilities. The number of these full time jobs at these sites averaged out to about 9,400 per year. Adding the full time jobs created and those supporting jobs in the local areas to the green energy facilities the report finds that the sum total of both full and part time or supporting jobs created, was approximately 5,500 jobs.
Doing the math finds that for the full time green energy jobs cost $9.8 million for each job created. It gets only slightly better when adding in the supporting jobs in and around the green energy facilities. The sum total of the full time and supporting jobs, approximately 5,500, gives a total cost of $1.63 million for each job created.
Overall was this a good return on your tax dollar investment? Discuss amongst yourselves.
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