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Olympia Office:
425-A Legislative Building
PO Box 40600
Olympia, WA 98504-0600
(360) 786-7820
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Toll-Free Legislative Hotline
1-800-562-6000
Website
www.houserepublicans.wa.gov/Crouse |
COMMITTEES:
Technology, Energy and Communications (Ranking)
Commerce & Labor
General Gov't Appropriations |
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April 20, 2009
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
There has been a lot of
talk this session -- more than any I can remember --
about green buildings and green jobs. These are
terms that are tossed about as if we should all know
exactly what they mean and as if they are based on
irrefutable evidence.
The
state has been pushing for more "green" public
buildings, especially in our school districts,
and we're constantly trying to mandate more and
more "green" jobs. But what does all of
this really mean? What affect does this
have on taxpayer dollars? On jobs?
I would like to take a few minutes to help set
the record straight from my point of view. |
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I recently received a very thorough report from the
Washington Policy Center (WPC). You should know
that the WPC is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization
that has been supplying legislators and public officials
with research, reports and legislative analysis for
nearly two decades. They have a reputation for
providing top-notch information with no political spin.
I have found their analyses over the years to be
insightful, professional, and extremely weighted with
verifiable information.
The WPC report I received revealed three surprising facts:
1) In
virtually every school district in our state,
Washington's "green" schools used more energy per square
foot than schools built recently without green
standards. Legislators were told that these same
buildings would save 30-50 percent in energy costs.
But this is not the case. The Department of
Ecology admitted as much recently, saying that any
claims about energy savings were "premature."
This was further confirmed by Tacoma facilities director
Pete Wall who said in a recent story on KING 5 NEWS that
"High performance schools are not cheaper to operate
than a 1920, 1930s building..."
2) Washington's
"green" schools cost considerably more than first
advertised. Legislators were told that adding
green building standards to our school construction
process would cost less than 2 percent. The
reality, however, is that green schools cost between 3
and 7 percent more. This amounts to up to $35
million a year in additional school construction costs.
And, since we now know that green schools don't actually
save the school district money in reduced energy costs,
the districts cannot recoup the increase in construction
costs.
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3)
Legislators were also told that green schools,
with their abundance of natural light and more
fresh air, would lead to lower absentee rates
than the statewide average. However, more
and more facility directors understand the
benefits natural light and fresh air have toward
lowering absentee rates and have been adding them without the
cookie-cutter mandates from Olympia. As a
result, we see no measureable difference in
absentee rates between green schools and
locally-designed schools. |
In fact, in Spokane, where there are three green
schools, absentee rates are slightly higher than the
rest of the district as a whole.
The point of
this fact-finding mission is not to slam proponents of
protecting our environment or those in support of green
schools.
However, when green schools cost more to
build than what legislators were told, when they save
less in actual energy costs than we were led to believe,
and when the absentee rates at green schools remain
unchanged, the public has a right to know the truth
behind the rhetoric.
As for "green jobs," many
proponents oftentimes point to Europe, or more
specifically, Spain, as the worldwide leader in creating
a new "green economy" with the addition of thousands of
new "green jobs."
However, a recent,
first-of-its-kind study done by the Juan Carlos
University in Madrid, revealed some startling facts:
Once the windmills are built,
then what? Where do the "green jobs" go? |
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* For every
"green" job created by the Spanish government,
2.2 other, more traditional jobs were lost.
* Each "green" megawatt installed in Spain
destroyed 5.39 jobs in non-energy sectors.
* Only one in ten "green" jobs created in
Spain were of a permanent nature, the rest being
temporary jobs in construction, fabrication and
installation of new "green" technologies. |
* Since 2000, Spain has spent $774,000 to create
each new green job, including subsidies of more than
$1.3 million per wind industry job.
* The study
predicts that if our nation's subsidies to renewable
producers achieve the same results -- and the current
administration has held Spain up as a model for how to
subsidize renewable energy -- the U.S. could lose 6.6
million to 11 million jobs while creating 3 million
largely temporary green jobs.
The loss of jobs
due to Spain's push to go green has proven to be one of
their biggest obstacles in coming out of the worldwide
economic crisis. Curious, then, that there are
some who see the United States' involvement in a new
green economy as the salvation for our economy?
Spain has "been there, done that," and their experience
is glaring evidence that the United States needs to slow
down and consider the consequences of embracing a new,
unproven green economy very carefully.
Is this the
direction we as a state and nation should be
heading? Should we be spending taxpayer
dollars on subsidizing green energy and thus
bear the brunt of further jobs losses at a time
when unemployment rates are near record highs?
Or should we be spending our money and our
efforts in ways that reduce regulatory burdens
and create jobs for our hard-working families?
Thank you for taking the time to read my
E-newsletter. I'll keep you up to date on
these and other issues as we head into the final
weeks of the 2009 session.
Sincerely,
Larry Crouse
State Representative
4th
District |
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Rep. Crouse with Legislative Page
Emily Nelson from Spokane Valley. |
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my web site for updated information and to contact
me via e-mail. You can also sign-up for my
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