THOUSANDS OF NEW JOBS IN NEW ENERGY

Results from states with Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) provisions requiring utilities to obtain a percent of their electricity from renewables by a date certain strongly suggest that legislative mandates are the best way to incentivize New Energy development -- and the likely economic boon it would bring.

Best of all: Utility prices are essentially unaffected, long term.

Wind and Solar Energy: Renewable Energy to Create Thousands of New Jobs
Melissa Monk, Ocotber 26, 2007 (Energy Policy TV via BusinessWire)

WHO
Rhone Resch, President, Solar Energy Industries Association; Randy Swisher, President, American Wind Energy Association, Energy Policy TV

Solar energy is already providing new jobs all over the world and will continue to do so wherever the industry grows. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
In separate interviews at Energy Policy TV events, Resch and Swisher described the enormous economic benefits available if and/or when political leaders pass legislation incentivizing New Energy in ways similar to those it has in the past provided to fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

WHEN
- Resch expects 55,000 new jobs in the next 8 years from pending national energy legislation.
- The wind energy industry is expected to grow 50% in 2007.

WHERE
- Resch stressed the importance of tax credit extensions for renewables in the pending energy bill.
- Swisher stressed the importance of a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) in the pending energy bill to mandate development of renewables.

WHY
- Resch predicts 150,000 to 200,000 new jobs over the next ten years at solar energy’s present rate of growth.
- The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) may create a training program for solar installation and maintenance.
- New homes are being built with solar systems.
- Governors and other state officials are lobbying wind energy providers and hardware manufacturers to establish businesses.
- There are more than 6000 megawatts of new wind energy presently under construction in the US.

Not only are there lots of jobs in the renewable energy industries, but they are good-paying, skilled jobs unlikely to be outsourced. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Resch: “Silicon Valley…is being renamed as ‘Solar Valley’ [because] those companies are making the transition over to solar as the next great high-tech growth industry and we have an opportunity to keep that industry here in the United States.”
- Swisher: “[Wind energy] has been the second-largest contributor [of] new installed capacity behind gas for the last three years…[Future turbines, including a 7.5 megawatt machine is driving] towards the scaling up process.”