What is a Green Job?
Turns out the guy who gasses up a school bus has a green job.
When Bureau of Labor Statistics Acting Commissioner John Galvin balked on what qualifies as a green job under the agency definition, Issa responded, “Just answer the question.”
“Does someone who sweeps the floor at a company that makes solar panels -- is that a green job?” Issa asked.
“Yes,” replied Galvin, who also acknowledged that a bike-repair shop clerk, a hybrid-bus driver, any school bus driver and “the guy who puts gas in a school bus” are all defined as green jobs.
He also acknowledged that an oil lobbyist, if his work is related to environmental issues, would also have a green job.
It gets better. Apparently, when I worked at the Exxon refinery in Baytown, TX, I had a green job:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics states a green job is either: a business that produces goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources, or a job in which a worker's duties involve making their establishment's production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources
I have never encountered an industrial engineering job anywhere that was not concerned with having their processes use fewer natural resources.
I would argue the greenest of jobs are held by oil and other commodity speculators and traders. They ensure that prices at all times accurately match our current understanding of the scarcity of each resource. Without these accurate pricing signals, all efforts to properly invest to use more or fewer of these materials would be impossible. Just look at the "success" of investments like Solyndra that were made irregardless of these market pricing signals.
