Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Democrat Presidential wannabe Jay Inslee seems to believe if the government spends enough money, and encourages poor people with dubious credit history to take on lots of subsidised low interest debt, the economy will boom forever.

An Evergreen Economy for America

Investing in Good Jobs, Clean Energy & Modern Infrastructure

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Governor Jay Inslee’s Evergreen Economy Plan is a comprehensive vision to build a clean energy economy that will create 8 million good jobs during the next 10 years. The plan catalyzes roughly $9 trillion of investment — with at least $300 billion in average annual federal spending leveraging approximately $600 billion more each year — in American industries and manufacturing, infrastructure, skilled labor, and new technology deployment.

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The Evergreen Economy Plan focuses on 5 key strategies for economic growth:

1. Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy: Governor Inslee will make historic investments as part of an unprecedented nationwide effort to deploy clean energy in every community in the country. …
2. Building Sustainable & Climate-Smart Infrastructure: Governor Inslee’s Evergreen Economy Plan makes the largest investment in American infrastructure in generations …
3. Leading the World in Clean Manufacturing: The Evergreen Economy Plan creates incentives and programs to grow good American jobs and keep U.S. manufacturing on the cutting-edge of the 21st century global economy. …
4. Investing in Innovation & Scientific Research: To defeat climate change and fully capture the clean energy opportunity of the 21st century, Governor Inslee’s plan also invests in transformative research and development in next-generation clean technology and climate solutions, and in scientific discovery and STEM education. …
5. Ensuring Good Jobs with Family Supporting Wages & Benefits: Governor Inslee puts reinvestment in American workers at the heart of his plan to build an Evergreen Economy — ensuring high-paying, high-skilled jobs building a stronger, healthier, more just, inclusive and sustainable future. …

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Establishing targeted refundable tax credits for installing in existing buildings efficiency upgrades such as HVAC systems, water heaters (including solar water heaters), envelope improvements, and systems solutions like underground thermal energy storage and district heating/cooling systems, as well as transitioning from heating oil to speed reduction in fossil fuel use. The credits will extend to commercial equipment, as well, including advanced boilers and chillers. 

Establishing a reserve fund for inclusive financing through utility on-bill investments in cost-effective energy efficiency upgrades for all customers, regardless of income, credit score, or renter status.

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Capitalizing the CEDA with an initial $90 billion federal investment that will provide low-cost investment for projects in market segments where the private sector is underinvesting. This financing will be deployed as low-cost loans and loan guarantees that will earn a return for CEDA, allowing it to cost-effectively support clean energy transformation on an ongoing basis.

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Next-Generation Rural Electrification: During the New Deal, visionary policies fueled rapid expansion of rural economic development through the Rural Development Administration in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The New Deal assured sustained federal financing for modern infrastructure in communities that had been passed over by private industry due to the relatively high cost of serving users in rural areas. Today many of these same programs still exist within the federal government, and we can rely on them once again to ensure that vibrant rural economies thrive in a new clean energy revolution. For example, the Rural Utility Service (RUS) offers low-cost financing to several hundred rural utilities, which lowers the cost of repowering with locally sourced clean energy and investing in beneficial electrification and building energy upgrades. In this way, the same tools that originally enabled electrification to span from coast to coast can once again bring modern, clean, smart and affordable energy and communications infrastructure to thriving rural communities. This will include:

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Expanding funding and financing through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Housing and Rural Business Service to fund energy-efficiency upgrades and on-site solar energy investments that lower utility bills and expand economic opportunity, including access to affordable housing

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Prioritizing green and clean energy assets in awarding competitive HUD grants and loans and in setting Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) incentives for banks will further engage private capital markets in rapidly meeting the 100% clean energy standards that are central to America’s Climate Mission.

Read more: https://jayinslee.com/issues/evergreen-economy

One question – what would Jay Inslee do when he discovers people can’t pay back all this new debt?

None of the green investment will add anything to the productive efficiency of the US economy – Inslee quietly admits in his plan that he will be providing assistance for low income families to pay their green electricity bills. But Inslee’s plan would result in vast numbers of people being encouraged to take on a mountain of new debt – “regardless of income, credit score or renter status”.

How are people who can barely pay the grocery bill supposed to service all this new debt, even with government subsidies holding down interest rates?

Hasn’t the USA already tried providing vast amounts of easy credit to people who couldn’t pay it back? How well did that work out?