Environmental Economics: ... Tuesday, vice president Joe Biden offered his latest progress report on the stimulus package passed earlier this year. In a memo for the president, Mr. Biden said the clean-energy part of the stimulus plan—some $80 billion out of the $787 billion total—could help create more than 700,000 jobs and was “laying the foundation for a clean energy economy that will create a new generation of jobs, reduce dependence on oil and enhance national security.”

That includes 253,000 jobs created by direct government spending, and the potential for 469,000 more jobs as the clean-energy sector grows in response. A word of caution about those jobs estimates, though, from the vice-president’s memo:

"All of the job estimates used in this document correspond to jobs that last for one year. Of course, some jobs could last longer – in this case the number of distinct jobs would be reduced proportionately. For example, a project that employs one person for two years would count as creating two jobs."

That puts the cost of green job creation in starker perspective: The 253,000 direct jobs works out to a cost of about $90,000 a head—just for one year. Clean-energy manufacturing jobs are even more expensive to create, costing about $135,000 per job.