Go Greener Tips

An evening’s research on green energy, government spending, and the job market led me to a solid conclusion: I don’t know.

Obviously, renewable green energy would be good for the planet, and money is being spent on it with what some term “abandon.” One green energy program at the Department of Energy grew from a budget of $1.7 billion in 2008 to a budget of $18 billion in 2009.

But has it created new jobs?

The wind industry, with about 85,000 people employed in some capacity, seems to have held steady, with jobs merely being shifted from one area to another. In 2009 the construction sector employed an additional 500 workers due to increased installation of new wind turbines. It also employed another 1,000 in operations and management positions. But… 1,500 manufacturing jobs were lost in 2009 due to the credit crisis and the number of turbines produced in 2008.

Since 2007 there have been 100 new, announced or expanded manufacturing facilities that could supply more than 19,000 new wind manufacturing jobs – when the facilities come on line. However, even if all the announced facilities actually do come on line, that isn’t going to happen until 2012.

All 50 states do provide some jobs in the wind industry. They range from turbine and turbine component manufacturing to construction, installation and maintenance of wind turbines, legal and marketing services, transportation, and logistics.

Texas leads the nation in total wind capacity and in largest wind farms installed, while Iowa leads in terms of the percentage of electricity from wind power. Iowa gets 14% of its power from the wind. Thirty-four additional states have utility-scale wind projects.

Worldwide, approximately 500,000 people are employed in the wind industry – with only 17% of those jobs being in the U.S.

What about that stimulus money that’s supposed to be creating jobs?

The Treasury Department anticipated the distribution of about $3 billion in renewable energy grants by the end of 2010, and that figure was surpassed by April.

Research didn’t actually reveal where the bulk of it is going, but I did learn something interesting. While small businesses (those with 500 or fewer employees) have created 64% of the new jobs over the past 15 years, small business received only 23% of the dollars expended toward renewable energy projects. No wonder we aren’t seeing an increase in jobs.

We do know that some of it is going to major chemical corporations such as Dow Chemical. There it is being used for research, development, and manufacture of items such as solar shingles and an advanced auto battery built to use clean energy technology. I found no mention of new or additional jobs created to facilitate these projects.

Mistie Fairchild is a staff writer for Pantex Energy. Pantex Energy provides Texas Electricity Service for the entire deregulated area of the State of Texas. Contact us for the lowest commercial electricity rate in Texas.

Author: Mistie Fairchild
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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