Obama Green Jobs Programs Under Scrutiny

(Newsroom America) -- House Republicans are widening their probe into a number of White House energy program initiatives, examining some $500 million in grants to create green job training initiatives that placed just 10 percent of trainees in positions, according to a government report.

Green jobs have been a cornerstone of President Obama's economic agenda, but according to a Department of Labor inspector general report, a plan to train 124,893 people and put 79,854 in so-called green jobs has lagged substantially.

The report said that, 17 months after it began, the program had only trained about half that amount of people - 52,762 - and only about 8,035, or roughly 1 in 10, had jobs.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the program has produced "abysmal results," and he's demanding answers from Labor Department officials who awarded the grants, funded from the behemoth 2009 stimulus package.

Republicans have seized on administration failures, such as the bankruptcy of solar panel maker Solyndra, touted by the president in 2009 as the future of green energy.

Assistant Secretary of Labor Jane Oates, however, defended the agency's actions, saying the inspector general used old figures and that the program was not designed to produce immediate results.

"It's like coming to me three days after I join Weight Watchers and yelling at me because I didn't lose 62 pounds yet," she said. More recent numbers are still being compiled, she said during testimony.

One company focused on by Issa was Pathstone Corp., a Rochester, N.Y. non-profit firm that spent $2.3 million of its $8 million grant and trained only 25 people out of a stated goal of 660.

One company official, Jeffrey Lewis, said those figures were "extremely outdated" but he conceded that job placements have been slower than anticipated, USA Today reported.

Oates said bureaucracy was part of the problem, but that it was being addressed.

"We walk a fine line all the time between trying to be responsive to our beloved grantees — and we love all of them — and trying to be good stewards of the taxpayer's money," she said.

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