Clean Power = More Jobs
A new study shows that requiring utility companies to get 25% of their power from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind (by 2025) would result in more jobs.
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“A strong renewable electricity standard is crucial to create a stable investment environment and grow this highly promising sector,” says Don Furman, senior vice president for development, transmission, and policy at wind energy company Iberdrola Renewables. “Without a strong RES, the US wind industry will see no net job growth, and will likely lose jobs to overseas competitors.”
Furman’s points here are nothing new. Obama said the same thing very strongly in his State of the Union address and, everyday, I read articles on this matter and on the “clean energy race“.
Nonetheless, this new study puts some numbers into the issue and helps to back up Furman and Obama’s claims. This study found that “the industry would create 274,000 more jobs under a 25 percent renewable power standard than it would create without a mandate.” (emphasis mine)
This is much more than what would be created from the proposed mandate put forth by the House of Representatives as part of a comprehensive climate and energy bill that is now being worked on in the Senate.
The House mandate was for 15% of utility companies’ power to come from renewable sources by 2020.
Counter to some lawmakers and citizens’ belief that others may benefit while their state loses (because they don’t have as much wind or solar power), this study found that every single state would actually gain jobs from this renewable energy standard.
Looks like the case is made that clean power will continue to create jobs, but I’m sure the opposition will continue to make the opposite claim. So, hopefully we will see more and more of this type of study.
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3) Hollywood Getting into the Action [Video]
Image Credit: Bread for the World via flickr under a CC license
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When we ship money overseas it leaves our economy and very little of it returns. Plugging this money leak from our economy keeps our money here to be reinvested and respent in our own communities. So, of course this means adding jobs.
I’d also like to add that had we done this 30 years ago, we could have been benefiting from this reinvestment over that entire time period. There is no telling how much better we’d be from generating our own electricity today, not worrying so much about global warming, and likely dominating the world in production of green technologies. And, in fact, we were pushing green energy during the Carter administration. But, when Reagan came into office, we completely dismantled the programs encouraging green investment… Yay Reagan, our greatest president ever!
When we ship money overseas it leaves our economy and very little of it returns. Plugging this money leak from our economy keeps our money here to be reinvested and respent in our own communities. So, of course this means adding jobs.
I’d also like to add that had we done this 30 years ago, we could have been benefiting from this reinvestment over that entire time period. There is no telling how much better we’d be from generating our own electricity today, not worrying so much about global warming, and likely dominating the world in production of green technologies. And, in fact, we were pushing green energy during the Carter administration. But, when Reagan came into office, we completely dismantled the programs encouraging green investment… Yay Reagan, our greatest president ever!
great epilogue, Chris V 🙂
i completely agree, but very well said!
great epilogue, Chris V 🙂
i completely agree, but very well said!
In the interest of completeness…
The net number of new jobs added to the economy from renewable energy may be less than the types of numbers reported in this article because if using renewable energy increases the cost of energy (and it most likely will, at least in the short to medium run), that could result in job losses elsewhere in the economy. One example of job losses would be in energy-intensive industries — they might simply move more production to countries (or states) where energy is less expensive (and most likely comes from non-renewable sources).
However, in the current economic environment, I suspect that the number of net new jobs will still be positive. Right now we have no lack of capital — interest rates are very low. The problem right now is that businesses don’t have any clear sense of what to spend on. Even if we just had a program to dig and refill holes in the ground, it would create more jobs. So giving businesses a clear incentive to build renewable energy facilities most likely will create new jobs so long as the economy is depressed. Once the economy returns to normal, however, there’s a good chance that the net effect of cap and trade or a carbon tax on job creation might be zero or even negative. I would still support such policies because of the advantages in terms of climate and energy independence, but at that point, job creation could no longer be listed as an advantage of the policy.
In the interest of completeness…
The net number of new jobs added to the economy from renewable energy may be less than the types of numbers reported in this article because if using renewable energy increases the cost of energy (and it most likely will, at least in the short to medium run), that could result in job losses elsewhere in the economy. One example of job losses would be in energy-intensive industries — they might simply move more production to countries (or states) where energy is less expensive (and most likely comes from non-renewable sources).
However, in the current economic environment, I suspect that the number of net new jobs will still be positive. Right now we have no lack of capital — interest rates are very low. The problem right now is that businesses don’t have any clear sense of what to spend on. Even if we just had a program to dig and refill holes in the ground, it would create more jobs. So giving businesses a clear incentive to build renewable energy facilities most likely will create new jobs so long as the economy is depressed. Once the economy returns to normal, however, there’s a good chance that the net effect of cap and trade or a carbon tax on job creation might be zero or even negative. I would still support such policies because of the advantages in terms of climate and energy independence, but at that point, job creation could no longer be listed as an advantage of the policy.