ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS
From commercial-scale solar developments to energy-efficient recycling projects, clean energy and clean transportation continues to create jobs and drive economic growth. By tracking job announcements from companies, elected officials, the media, and elsewhere, Environmental Entrepreneurs’ (E2’s) jobs reports show how and where clean energy works in the United States.
For more details, including state-by-state breakdowns and more clean energy jobs stories, visit www.cleanenergyworksforus.org.
CLEAN JOBS GROW IN Q2
More than 12,500 clean energy and clean transportation jobs and clean transportation were announced in 29 states in the second quarter of 2014. This is more than twice the number of jobs announced in the first quarter of the year. Solar generation once again led all sectors — with more than 5,300 jobs announced — as declining module prices and growing private-sector investment expanded job opportunities in the industry. Meanwhile, the wind industry announced about 2,700 jobs, mostly because projects that qualified for the recently expired Production Tax Credit began construction. Wind manufacturers, including Vestas in Colorado and Gearbox Express in Wisconsin, reported hiring additional manufacturing employees to match turbine demand. The biggest hiring boost to the U.S. clean energy manufacturing sector came from the automotive industry, with General Motors and Tesla announcing 1,900 manufacturing jobs to produce electric vehicles.
Many job announcements E2 tracked this quarter fill the kinds of positions that will help states meet federal carbon pollution standards announced in June. The federal Clean Power Plan seeks to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, and each state has the flexibility to determine the most economically effective means of achieving its individual
goal. For example, some governors have said fostering the growth of the clean power and energy efficiency sectors in their states is one of the best ways to both meet the standards and expand economic opportunities.
Second-quarter trends also point to the importance of long-term certainty around federal tax policies. By failing to extend clean energy and energy efficiency tax incentives, Congress continues to subject the industry to market uncertainty, creating boom-and-bust investment cycles that result in sporadic employment for thousands of American workers. While Congressional gridlock hurts the clean energy industry, this has been partially offset by long-term financing mechanisms developed by various state governments and the private sector. These mechanisms have empowered entrepreneurs to create jobs and provide cleaner energy and cost savings to individual American consumers as well as to businesses and manufacturers.
TOP TEN STATES
Arizona ranked first as the state with the greatest number of announced jobs this past quarter, followed by California, thanks to several announcements from the utility-scale solar industry. Michigan came in third followed by Utah, Massachusetts, New York, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, and North Carolina.
Download full version (PDF): Clean Energy Works for Us
About Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2)
e2.org
“Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) is a national community of business leaders who promote sound environmental policy that builds economic prosperity. We provide an independent, nonpartisan resource for understanding the business perspective on environmental issues. Working with business, environmental and non-traditional allies, E2 helps shape state and national policy that’s good for the economy and the environment.”
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