Earlier this week, Senator Kit Bond of Missouri issued a "report" on green jobs, essentially an exercise in taking statements from various reports on green jobs out of context and ignoring what those reports actually have to say. The Senator's report was another salvo in an effort to persuade Congress that no good can come from increasing our investment in clean energy by imposing a penalty on global warming polluters.
But some folks in Missouri like the idea of green jobs. As Jim Riley of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said yesterday,
"Sen. Bond may not think so, but creating jobs by making our homes, buildings, cars and products as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible is something Missourians should welcome."
Why would anyone be against green jobs and cleaning up the environment? I can't speak to the Senator's motives, but it may be worth noting that according to the most recent data from the Federal Election Commission, one of the biggest contributors to Senator Bond's PAC has been Peabody Energy, the world's largest coal company.
Peabody executives and its PAC donated the most money to KitPac-- Bond's leadership PAC--during the last two election cycles (2006 and 2008), with $32,500.
The second biggest source of contributions came from Koch, a notorious polluter and the biggest funder behind astro-turf noisemakers Americans for Prosperity (of Koch Industries.) Koch gave $15,000 during the last two cycles.
So Senator Bond may be ok with some forms of green. Just not jobs that are green.