The environmental left spews so many lies it is difficult picking out which is the most pernicious. But considering how the economy is everyone’s number one concern right now, the left’s promise to save the economy with “green collar jobs” is definitely the most salient one out there right now.

The lie goes something like this: “The Obama-Biden comprehensive New Energy for America plan will help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.” Obama’s plan to build “a clean energy future” reads an awful lot like the union/enviro backed Apollo Alliance plan to “build America’s 21st century clean energy economy”  and create “5 million jobs.” The only difference is that while Obama says he can create 5 million new “green collar jobs” with just $150 billion, The Apollo Alliance says it will take $500 billion to create the same 5 million jobs.

When asked to explain the discrepancy why Obama claims he can create the same 5 million jobs with $350 billion less money, Apollo Alliance co-director (and self pro-claimed coiner of the “green collar jobs” term) Kate Gordon told the Wall Street Journal, “Honestly, it’s just to inspire people.

Got that? The enviro/left is openly admitting that all of their green collar jobs numbers have no relation to reality and are only spewed to “inspire people.” As we’ve explained before:

The lie at the core of the green-collar myth is that new jobs are being created. There is no new employment, just a transfer of employment from the “non-green” sector to the “green sector” — and often at a net loss of jobs. If regulations force power companies to forgo natural gas for solar power, then sure, the people who manufacture and install the solar panels will have “new” jobs, but those who mined and distributed the natural gas will be out of jobs. And then there are the higher energy costs. Carbon taxes and renewable energy mandates do not create new energy: they simply drive up the price of existing supplies. And higher energy prices means less jobs for everyone.