A New York Times article published yesterday concludes that despite what the White House says, green jobs creation is just not really happening in the U.S. The reason for such slow domestic growth can be directly tied to three factors:

1) It is still cheaper to build green energy plants outside the U.S., because incentives in other countries are significantly better.

Last week, the Gamesa wind turbine plant in western Pennsylvania announced it was laying off nearly half its 280 workers. Last month, General Electric said it would close a solar panel factory in Delaware, while Evergreen Solar, which received $58 million in state aid to build a 900-employee plant northwest of Boston, said it would move some assembly to China, costing 250 jobs.

According to Rhone Resch of the Solar Energy Industries Association, U.S. Industries Association:

“In China, 80 percent of the entire cost of a factory and worker training is paid for by the government,” Mr. Resch said. “Malaysia will give you a 10- or 20-year tax holiday.

2) The meager incentives the federal government have set aside for clean energy investment are not being distributed.

In addition, the government’s $11 billion program to modernize the nation’s power grid — to make it easier to absorb electricity generated by wind and solar power — is just getting off the ground, officials say. They say the weatherization part of the stimulus package has already put many people to work in California, Ohio, Georgia and other states, and that number is expected to more than double this winter and spring.

While many green industry executives and environmental experts applaud these efforts, they say more needs to be done. Some note that even with the administration’s recent moves, it has spent less than one-fourth of the $80 billion clean energy component of the stimulus package.

3) Without greater assurances of clean energy’s future value (in the form of carbon taxing, cap and trade, environmental mandates, etc.), private investment is reluctant.

“The renewable energy industry in the U.S. is an underdeveloped developing industry,” said Michael Peck, director of external affairs for Gamesa USA, a Spanish-owned company that has two wind turbine factories in Pennsylvania. “Manufacturers, developers, utilities, financiers — they don’t see the legislative pieces that they’re all hoping for to help the industry move forward.”

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President Obama has responded to critics, calling the $80 billion from the stimulas package “by far the largest amount ever committed to renewable energy.”

Recently, the Obama administration has taken several steps it says will soon produce thousands of green jobs. In August, it announced $2.3 billion in tax credits that will go to manufacturers of clean energy technologies. It has also allocated $6 billion for loan guarantees that could, in turn, generate $60 billion in investments.

The administration notes that Solyndra, a company that makes solar photovoltaic panels in Fremont Calif., received a $535 million loan guarantee to finance a manufacturing plant, creating 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs.

Additionally, many clean energy companies continue to invest in production facilities in the U.S:

First Solar is starting a fourth production line at its photovoltaic cell factory in Perrysburg, Ohio, adding 140 jobs to the 560 there. First Solar also hopes to use federal loan guarantees to build a 30-megawatt generating facility in Cimarron, N.M., creating 200 construction jobs.

A Dow Corning joint venture in Midland, Mich., is building a plant to make silicon wafers for photovoltaic cells. In a surprise to many, Suntech, the giant Chinese solar manufacturer, is building a factory in the Phoenix area — to expand in the American market and deflect protectionist pressures.

Even with all this considered, Cathy Calfo, executive director of the Apollo Alliance, says it best: “As a country we need to make a decision that we do or don’t want to be a leader in this area.”