Green power grids - wasteful and inefficient?

In a recent editorial Nature advocated the deployment of an efficient, decentralized, intelligent, green power grid that takes into account the fickleness of wind energy.

Public and private programmes to achieve these goals will probably generate many new, highly skilled 'clean-tech' and 'green collar' jobs. Both candidates for the US presidency have talked about investing in the grid, and Democrat Barack Obama has specifically promised to spend $150 billion to create 5 million green jobs if elected.

This quote indicates that the proposed power grid will be a waste of resources and that Nature, like voters, doesn't know that jobs are costs, not benefits.