Green Jobs and Free Trade

Here and there I have been reading snipes at the Obama Administration's manufacturing policy. The best one liner was something to the effect that while we may be heading for a "green economy," the actual "green jobs" are being created, right now, in China. Most of the turbine windmills are being manufactured in China then exported here. Now that's a carbon footprint if there every was one!

So it seems we should be thinking about what exactly those green jobs entail, and how do we create and sustain them. Part of this discussion, I suspect, means we re-visit the ideas of free trade. China artificially suppresses the valuation of the Yuan, which means we are able to get stuff cheap from them. And they dump a lot of products here in the US, making it virtually impossible for our manufacturers to compete.

How about we say to the world that we need to make the beginnings of the green economy a local issue. Local manufacturing of the components for green energy generation. And using local engineering talent to site the green energy production. Or how about really figuring out how to make our automobile manufacturing the best in the world, energy efficient and cool looking, keeping living wage jobs here in the US.

It just seems hypocritical to me if we talk the talk but certainly don't walk it.