There's nothing magical about a solar panel that makes it less likely to gravitate toward cheap labor—in fact, China already produces one-third of the world's solar cells. If the US wants green manufacturing jobs, it will have to develop industrial policy to keep them here. Obama has taken a step in that direction by proposing $150 billion in spending over 10 years on green energy incentives and job training. And infrastructure jobs can't be outsourced—retrofitting an economy must be done from the inside.

"Fossil fuels power lots of jobs.

Proponents of fossil fuels tout job creation, but the truth is there aren't many jobs in dirty energy, and that number is declining. To wit: Over the last two decades, coal output in the US has grown by a third, while the number of jobs in the coal industry has fallen by half. According to economist John A. "Skip" Laitner of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, for every $1 million of revenue in energy-related sectors, fewer than two jobs are created, compared to seven jobs per $1 million earned elsewhere. Thus, shifting investment away from conventional energy can't help but create more jobs, particularly during the transition to a green economy, when construction, efficiency, and other labor-intensive industries will be scaling up.

The immediate key is that green job proponents need to be tooting the horn more effectively about a green job economy.