Just as in Spain, subsidizing renewable energy in America would create increasingly large debt bubbles, according to Dr. Gabriel Calzada of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Spain, the recent author of a study on renewables’ effects on employment there.

“Once you start on this path of putting public money up to make it possible for renewable energies to succeed-you create a huge problem that needs continuous amounts of money,” he said, adding that a short-term glut of “green jobs” masks fundamental problems in the medium and longterm. “Most of the jobs are only in installation. Very few are in operation and maintenance…This means a renewable bubble, but also a subsidy bubble.”

Indiana’s Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, hosted the Energy Summit which Dr. Calzada, along with Heritage Senior Analyst Ben Lieberman, lent their expertise at. The summit kicked off a nationwide tour that seeks to develop real energy solutions that won’t raise taxes on the American people.

The Foundry previously covered Dr. Calzada’s sobering findings:

…For every “green job” created 2.2 jobs in other sectors have been destroyed. Furthermore, Spain’s government spent $758,471 to create each green job; Spain’s government used $36 billion in taxpayer money to invest in wind, solar, and mini-hydro from 2000-2008.

“They’re very risky jobs. If at any point the bubble explodes, you dont have these jobs anymore,” Dr. Calzada said. “How many jobs have you created – and how many jobs would you have created with all these resources?”

To nervous laughter, Dr. Calzada closed his opening remarks with another question: “Why would a country like the US like to learn how to create jobs from the country with the highest unemployment rate in the developed world?”

Good question, Professor.