And there’s other encouraging news this week from the private sector on the green business front--one of the few areas of the economy that actually shows some robust job growth, and one of the areas that we should be looking to as we look to create a sustainable and powerful new economy.
The administration has agreed to investigate a complaint by the United Steelworkers that China is cheating when it comes to building its solar and wind power manufacturing. The union filed its complaint last month, arguing that the Chinese government was heavily subsidizing its clean energy industry, in violation of World Trade Organization rules and, apparently, our government is concerned enough to launch a probe of its own.
China has in the past few years become a clean energy powerhouse, quickly becoming the largest manufacturer of solar panels in the world and building a wind turbine industry from scratch. Most of that capacity has been directed at the export markets in the U.S. and Europe, instead of addressing the Middle Kingdom’s own gaping energy needs.
And that has organizations like the steelworkers concerned, lest the budding U.S. clean energy sector be strangled in its crib by unfair competition from abroad.
It’s important, too, because the U.S. industry is actually one of the few sectors of our economy that’s producing robust job growth, and because it is a cradle of innovation that others in the world are turning to for both inspiration and practical work.
Just this week, three events showed just how robust a powerful U.S. green companies and businesses could become, and how that could change our economy and the world.
First, on the jobs front, the Solar Foundation released its first ever jobs census for the U.S. solar industry and it shows big growth in jobs available--something so important it can hardly be overstated in an economy still stagnating with an unemployment rate near 10 percent following the Great Recession.
According to the report, jobs in the U.S. solar industry is growing jobs at a time when 16 percent of small businesses say they plan to cut positions.
Here’s a taste of what the jobs census has to say about solar companies and their job plans:
The Solar Foundation, helped by Cornell University, found that there were 93,000 jobs tied to the industry, about double the number in 2009, and 50 percent of the companies involved in it plan to hire in the coming months. Granted, that’s a small start, but I’d wager there are relatively few fields today where you could expect a similarly sunny outlook. And--and this is almost as important--the companies involved are small businesses, ranging from 14 to 24 workers, just the kind of companies that, if nurtured, could have limitless potential to grow into giants.
And while the solar power industry census shows a young industry that’s growing like a weed, the wind industry also got a boost this week with plans announced to build an underwater superhighway for electric transmission off the east coast, setting the stage to carry as much electricity from offshore wind farms five large nuclear reactors would.
The wind farms, of course, don’t exist yet, and the $5 billion transmission line from New Jersey to Norfolk, Virginia, will have to go through the arduous process of government approvals.But the project by Maryland’s Trans-Elect has some very impressive backers in Google, New York investment firm Good Energies, and Japanese firm Marubeni.
On its blog, Google points out, the transmission line would carry enough electricity to equal, “60 percent of the wind energy that was installed in the entire country last year and enough to serve approximately 1.9 million households,"
Google is an especially interesting investor, since the search and advertising giant has consistently shown it’s willing to put at least some of its massive amounts of cash to work on green energy projects. As I pointed out at Portfolio.com:
“The company has one of the largest corporate solar installations in the country at its Mountain View, California, headquarters. That installation generates 1.6 megawatts of power, enough for about 1,000 homes. Google has also invested in several up-and-coming alternative-energy companies—including solar firms BrightSource and eSolar and geothermal energy firm AltaRock.”
And on its corporate site, the company has this to say about a green future:
“The U.S. has a real opportunity to transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy. The energy team at Google has been crunching the numbers to see how we could greatly reduce fossil fuel use by 2030. Our analysis suggests a potential path to weaning the U.S. off of coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40 percent. Over 22 years, this plan could generate billions of dollars in savings and help create millions of green jobs.”
For another U.S. company in the green space, this week was a positive one as well. Tesla Motors Inc.--the electric car company that this summer became the first U.S. auto manufacturer since Ford Motor Company to go public--has attracted a $60 million investment from Toyota to develop an electric drive train for its RAV-4. It’s further evidence that the movement toward electric vehicles is gaining traction, and U.S. industry has the opportunity to be at the heart of that movement.
Finally, Wal-Mart continues to surprise with its commitment to the green movement. The world’s biggest retailer has long been a leader in cleaning up its supply chain and pressuring its suppliers to reduce packaging waste.
Now, Wal-Mart is joining the local food movement, on a global scale. The company announced this week it will stress local sourcing for its produce departments. That’s a pretty big commitment for a retailer of Wal-Mart’s size. The company makes about half of its money from its grocery operations.
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