New ASES Report Sees 4.5 Million Net Jobs Created by Clean Energy
October 27, 2009So exactly how many jobs will be lost in this country, should we embrace the kind of energy and climate legislation that’s been tossed around in Congress since this spring? We’ve heard all kinds of projections of catastrophic job losses from bill opponents, should we actually see these bills become law, not to mention the mythical $1761 per household that the Administration’s climate policies would cost, according to a certain Mr. Glenn Beck.
As these words are being typed, the first of three hearings conducted by the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee this week is taking place. The first witness, Senator John Kerry (D-MA), cited several studies indicating that jobs will proliferate in a clean energy economy. He was followed by committee member Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who used his opening statement to describe his vision of a flood of jobs exiting the United States.
Congresspersons from states heavily dependent on fossil fuel production, like Tennessee, are understandably under pressure from constituents who see a swing toward clean energy as a threat to their jobs. But in wilfully seeing the employment glass as half-empty rather than half-full, these voters’ congressional legislators are doing them a disservice. They must know that when the buggy-whip business died it was because a new industry, promising large-scale employment, was growing fast. (more…)
By the time you read this, the area of the National Mall set aside for the Solar Decathlon will have been returned to its normal state, and perhaps those congresspersons and congressional staffers who visited the solar village will have reflected soberly on the event’s outcome. So they should, for while we highlighted in our coverage the different approaches taken by the teams rather than the scoring, we’re also aware that a single team from Europe bested no fewer than fifteen U.S. university teams in the practical application of clean energy technology.
