We hear all the time that penalizing carbon emissions would wreck an already wobbly economy, especially in Kentucky which is almost totally dependent on coal-fired electricity.
So it's ironic — and instructive — that Kentucky owes its best jobs news in a while to a blue-chip corporation's decision that going green is the way to make green.
GE's Appliance Park in Louisville, once a mainstay of Kentucky's manufacturing economy, was on the ropes just a year ago.
But the future looks brighter, thanks to GE's plans to manufacture energy-saving hot water heaters and washers and dryers in Louisville.
GE plans to invest more than $150 million over the next few years and create more than 800 jobs, many of them for engineers.
Energy Star, a joint program of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, rated hot water heaters for the first time this year.
GE's hybrid hot-water heater, which uses a heat pump and electric heater and will save consumers an average $250 a year, is expected to be the first to meet the new Energy Star standards.
To read the complete editorial, visit The Lexington Herald-Leader.
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