Spanish Green Jobs Study Debunked

By
Melissa Hincha-Ownby
Writer
  • Arizona State University
Melissa Hincha-Owny is a business writer who has covered topics ranging from personal finance and corporate social responsibility to parenting.
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Melissa Hincha-Ownby
Updated January 20, 2020
Spain perhaps is not working as hard to green its economy as was previously reported. (Photo: Lauren Manning [CC BY 2.0]/Flickr)

If you’ve been following my blog here at MNN for a while, then you have no doubt ready my many posts about the now infamous Spanish green jobs study. The report showed that the green jobs movement in Spain was detrimental to the country’s overall employment. One of the results of the study showed that for every green job that was created in the country, 2.2 “regular” jobs were lost.

The study quickly became the basis for much of the anti-green jobs movement while pro-green jobs organizations refuted the study because of the author’s ties to special interest groups.

Now, the Center for American Progress is reporting that a Spain-based organization is jumping into the fray and has written a letter debunking the Spanish green jobs study. In the letter, which was addressed to Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), Jesus Caldera and Carlos Mulas-Granados of the IDEAS Foundation point out several flaws in the study.

This sentence from the opening paragraph does a great job of summing up the entire letter: “We were surprised to learn that one of the principle pieces of evidence used by opponents of President Obama’s green recovery program is a deeply flawed report from a little known Spanish research institute funded in part by the oil industry. “ Source: Center for American Progress (PDF)