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Are ‘Green’ Programs Good for the Poor?

By Robert Murphy -- August 11, 2009

The Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) recently put out a study called “Green Prosperity”  with the subtitle:  “How Clean-Energy Policies Can Fight Poverty and Raise Living Standards in the United States.” I have posted a full critique for the Institute for Energy Reserach, which I summarize here.

Helping Business By Crippling It?

The PERI study makes this bold claim:

The building of a clean-energy economy in the United States can also serve another purpose: to create new ‘pathways out of poverty’ for the 78 million people in this country (roughly 25 percent of the population) who are presently poor or near-poor, and raise living standards more generally for low-income people in the United States. (p. 2)

This is nonsense. You don’t make a country richer by taking away options from businesses.…