More than 850,000 manufacturing jobs at firms already in existence across all 50 states could be created with the enactment of a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) of 25% by 2025, according to a report issued Monday by the Blue Green Alliance.
When accounting for manufacturing, installation and operations and maintenance, the job growth induced by the RES, the Blue Green report concludes, could be from four to six times greater than equivalent investments in fossil fuels.
"With steep job losses in manufacturing in the past year," said Blue Green Alliance Executive Director David Foster, "the need for a renewable electricity standard to combat climate change is now matched by the urgent need to reverse the devastating downturn in domestic manufacturing."
Studies performed over the past seven years by the California Energy Commission, Union of Concerned Scientists, University of California, Berkeley and Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies show that renewable energy sources generate greater employment than equivalent investments in fossil fuels, on average four to six times as many renewable energy jobs per megawatt as conventional coal or natural gas power supplies.
"The past failure of the federal government to adopt long-term regulatory policies like the RES and programs that encourage domestic manufacturing of new renewable energy technologies," said Foster, "has allowed Europe, Japan, China and other countries that do have such policies to capture the lion’s share of manufacturing jobs."
The report, which is an update of an earlier analysis, estimates state-by-state the number of jobs that could be created with the installation of 18,500 megawatts (MW) per year of wind, solar, geothermal and biomass plants, which is the rough equivalent to the supply delivered under a 25% by 2025 RES. The report also details the potential job growth in all 50 states in each of four renewable industries.
A version of an RES is currently making its way through the U.S. Senate and is included the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which recently passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. However, the levels being considered are far below the 25% mark supported by the Obama administration.
The Blue Green Alliance is urging strong and consistent federal policy support to greatly accelerate growth in wind-turbine manufacturing, and extend economic opportunity to smaller and less mature industries in the solar, geothermal and biomass sectors. The national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations announced in March its support for comprehensive climate change legislation as the most effective way to put millions of Americans back to work building the clean energy economy, including complementary regulations like the RES.
The report is available at the link below.
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