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Friday, November 14, 2008
Clean Energy
Now is the time to invest in alternative energy
MHT reporter Efrain Viscarolasaga on NECN: Green tech brings jobs back to Mass.
How is the economic crisis affecting tech companies?
“Drill, baby, drill!” or “Jobs, baby, jobs!” — take your pick.
You’ll pick both, you say? Sorry. In a carbon-constrained world that now is also a cash-constrained world, “both” is not an option. In fact, in this economic crisis, it would seem that we have few options indeed.
So what should we do?
Well, in the 1930s, Hitler turned around Germany’s depression economy through massive investments in military hardware as FDR was turning around our economy through massive investments in domestic infrastructure. Both approaches succeeded in creating millions of jobs. And, clearly, one choice was better than the other.
Gratefully, President-elect Barack Obama studies history and is committed to rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure of roads, bridges, schools, communications systems and transmission lines. Also gratefully, he understands the job-generating potential of investing in clean energy. Those who say that the financial crisis must postpone such investments are wrong. In fact, just the opposite is true. The millions of jobs that can be created through investments in energy efficiency, solar, wind, tides, biofuels, geothermal and other renewable sources are solid domestic jobs, difficult to outsource.
President Eisenhower warned us not to import more than 20 percent of our oil. Now it’s 60 percent, requiring that we gift $400 billion each year to countries that don’t particularly like us but are willing to sell us oil. Not too many jobs are created by this mega-export of the American dream.
Two weeks ago, this paper reported on the rejuvenation of the manufacturing industry in Massachusetts because of the thousands of jobs being created by clean energy companies (see Oct. 31 article, “Green manufacturing jobs sprouting in Mass.”). A few days later, the New York Times reported on the thousands of jobs being created in the Rust Belt to make wind turbine blades and towers, convert crops to fuel, and install solar panels. And as one worker was quoted saying: “I like this job more than I did Maytag. I feel I’m doing something to improve our country, rather than just building a washing machine.”
California estimates that for every 1,000 megawatts of solar power operating in its deserts, 1,000 ongoing jobs will be created, not including the initial construction jobs. Oh, by the way, their carbon emissions compared with coal? You guessed it.
Existing companies are benefiting too, although creating clean energy jobs is not usually counted in job statistics. For example, Pilkington has a large glass plant in Toledo. In the past two years, its North American automotive business has declined 30 percent while its solar division has almost doubled.
By some estimates, the clean energy industry already is generating $25 billion a year in sales and revenue and is growing at 30 percent a year. And the sweet thing about clean energy investments compared with investing in oil wells or old-fashioned power plants is that they don’t take 10 years before they start reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The savings begin almost right away.
So the new administration should take the following steps, in some cases following the lead of countless states:
1. Require that every utility in the country produce at least 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025;
2. Require every utility to shift their economics such that they can make more money implementing energy efficiency with their customers than selling them more power;
3. Implement a carbon cap-and-trade process;
4. Offer deep tax credits on virtually anything that makes the country’s economy more energy lean and efficient and that reduces our dependence on hydrocarbons;
5. Incentivize states to modernize their building codes to radically reduce their carbon footprint.
The country has hemmed and hawed since the first oil embargo in 1973. It’s time to get on with it!
Bruce Anderson is CEO of Wilson TurboPower Inc., and co-chair of the New England Clean Energy Council. He can be reached at Bruce.Anderson@WilsonTurboPower.com.
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