“Green Jobs” Report Touts NM Jobs That Don’t and Won’t Exist

by Jim Scarantino

Much hoopla has surrounded release of a study showing that so-called “green jobs” in New Mexico have exploded. But the fact sheet accompanying the report touts 600 “high wage jobs” at a solar plant that isn’t going to be built.

The report was featured in an op-ed placed in The Albuquerque Journal, and won glowing coverage by The New Mexico Independent.

The report by Headwaters Economics of Bozeman, Montana claims that “green job” growth outpaced all other types of job growth over twelve years from 1995 to 2007. They claim “green jobs” increased 62% while all other jobs increased 13%. The number of “green jobs,” however, remains a fraction of overall employment. At the end of a dozen years of explosive growth, “green jobs” amounted to only about 4,800 positions of the state’s 2008 total employment of 825,736.

The “fact sheet” accompanying the report’s release offers to explain New Mexico’s growth in “green jobs.” What is responsible for New Mexico’s success in this field? Highest on the list is what they call the state’s effort to “re-create New Mexico as the ‘Solar Valley.’” This is the appellation coined by Gov. Bill Richardson to describe his vision for New Mexico’s new economy, one that would make the state the solar energy equivalent to California’s Silicon Valley. It is no more than a figurative brand Richardson has given his policies, but Headwaters Economics cites it as a driving force in the state’s “green jobs” growth.

And this is where questions about the overall reliability of the report arise. For New Mexico has not become Solar Valley. Many solar ventures have not proceeded beyond the fanfare of the Governor announcing thousands of green jobs from businesses that never materialize. Headwaters Economics seems to have bought the press releases and not actually checked to see if the jobs exist.

Exhibit A is the prime example cited by Headwaters Economics to demonstrate the success of New Mexico’s Solar Valley: the 600 jobs at Signet Solar in Belen.
If you did a double-take that means you are current on the news that Signet Solar’s big promises blew away in the wind on Belen’s west mesa. Signet Solar never broke ground. Not one single job has been created. It’s pretty much kaput. But that didn’t stop Headwaters Economics analyzing New Mexico from Bozeman, Montana and making this proclamation in its “fact sheet”:

The state has rich potential for wind and geothermal energy production, and New Mexico is at the center of the North American solar industry, branding itself the “Solar Valley.” Companies such as Signet Solar Inc., which is building the company’s first North American solar panel production facility in Belen, are set to bolster New Mexico’s manufacturing base. The Signet plant is projected to create 600 high wage jobs.

We contacted the author of the report at her office in Bozeman. She revealed she had no idea that Signet Solar had collapsed without adding a single job to the local economy. That’s not exactly breaking news. Signet’s demise has been known for months. But Headwaters Economics made the failed Signet Solar project the poster child of its “green jobs” success story.

We previously exposed phantom jobs the Obama Administration had reported creating in non-existent Congressional districts and non-existent zip codes. Those were mostly reporting errors. But these phantom green jobs really are phantom–they don’t exist anywhere, except in bright, shining press releases and the hoopla about a fantasy called Solar Valley.

This was originally posted at New Mexico Watchdog.