What exactly is a “green job”? At a hearing yesterday, House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa tried to get to the bottom of it. And it turns out the definition is so broad that you might have one of these “green jobs” and not even realize it:

An antiques dealer. A clerk at a used record shop. An oil lobbyist who advocates on environmental issues. Any school bus driver.

Here is the Bureau of Labor Statistics definition of a green job, via Fox News:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics states a green job is either: a business that produces goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources, or a job in which a worker’s duties involve making their establishment’s production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources.

The bureau states on its website it developed the definition of green jobs for use in data collection in two planned surveys.

Certainly such an expansive definition doesn’t help actual efforts to measure green job creation, and to understand which policies work and which don’t. But it does help provide President Obama with a tiny shred of political cover when he’s forced to explain what his $90 billion stimulus earmark for green energy efforts has actually accomplished. At least, it did before Rep. Issa started asking questions.