We made a post yesterday about how green energy creates jobs (and creates more jobs than fossil fuel energy). Well, in an executive order yesterday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a parallel point about protectionism. Responding to the legislature's wanting to require a large part of its renewable energy to come from in-state, he said,
I am totally against protectionist policies because it never works.Schwarzenegger offered as support the observation that California gets other resources and products such as water and automobiles from outside California--so why not energy? Protectionist policies do have a historically poor track record dating from the recent banking meltdown to China's and North Korea's historically heavily protectionist policies. It makes sense for a free market conservative such as Schwarzenegger to advocate against protectionism, and we have to agree with him with regard to renewable energy.
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