In the March 24th Los Angeles Times Don Lee and Jim Tankersley provide details on a report that warns the U.S. economy will suffer because we’re falling behind other countries when it comes to clean energy investment. The Times says:

China overtook the United States for the first time last year in the race to invest in wind, solar and other sources of so-called “clean energy”, according to a comprehensive new report that raises questions of American competitiveness in a booming global market. The report warned that the current U.S. approach, in which states make varied efforts and the federal government’s efforts have been sporadic, has produced a “comparatively weak clean energy economy” – and risks losing out on economic growth and job creation.

Typically subsidies indicate that a product cannot complete in the marketplace without them. Furthermore, if Americans aren’t competitive in clean energy production because other countries subsidize technologies heavily, it means Americans can:

1. Allocate resources to be competitive in the production of another good or service
2. Import windmills and solar panels cheaply if they can help meet America’s energy demand.

It is true that we’ll create fewer jobs the less our government invests in clean energy, but that money doesn’t fall from the skies. The money government spends must first be borrowed or taxed out of the economy. What isn’t spent by the government will be spent more efficiently by the private sector to create jobs and grow the economy.