Saturday, Sep. 20, 2008

Green energy can create jobs, spur economy

We are on the cusp of an energy revolution. There is much debate as we search for real solutions to transition from our dependence on oil to a clean energy economy that will impact three areas of greatest concern to most Americans: jobs, energy costs and economic recovery.

A new report finds that investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy could create 28,000 new jobs in South Carolina and 2 million nationwide over the next two years.

“Green Recovery — A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low Carbon Economy,” a report commissioned by the Center for American Progress and the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute, outlines a $100 billion green economic recovery program to strengthen the U.S. economy over the next two years and leave it in a better position for sustainable prosperity.

Investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency are central to the proposed recovery program, with a combination of direct public fund expenditures, tax credits and loan guarantees to spur private sector investment.

This $100 billion initiative would be incorporated in a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program and paid for with proceeds from auctions of allowances under such a program. Its benefits would go well beyond helping the environment. If implemented, the green economic recovery package would:

• Create 2 million new jobs over two years (28,000 in South Carolina) with a significant proportion (800,000 jobs) in the struggling construction and manufacturing sectors.

• Create nearly four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry and 300,000 more jobs than a similar amount of spending directed toward household consumption.

• Create roughly triple the number of good jobs — paying at least $16 an hour — as spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.

• Reduce the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent from 5.7 percent (calculated within the framework of U.S. labor market conditions in July 2008).

• Bolster employment, especially in construction and manufacturing. Construction employment has fallen from 8 million to 7.2 million over the past two years due to the housing bubble collapse.

• And provide opportunities to rebuild career ladders through training and work force development.

The program aims to boost private and public investment in six energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies:

• Retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency

• Expanding mass transit and freight rail

• Constructing “smart” electrical grid transmission systems

• Promoting wind power

• Promoting solar power

• Promoting next-generation biofuel power.

A green investment policy such as this could be funded by auction revenues generated by a climate law. A cap-and-trade program could generate about $100 billion per year. It would establish the necessary amount of funding to jump-start the green-energy economy and create millions of jobs in America.

America is facing an energy crisis as well as an economic downturn. There is no better time to invest in the economic future to create jobs that reinvigorate our economy, increase our energy independence and reduce the harmful effects of global warming.

Ms. Schretzmann-Jebaily is project director for climate change and sustainability with Conservation Voters of South Carolina. She lives in Florence.