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Jobs that Build a Better Future
Clean energy investments will create millions of manufacturing jobs and whole new industries
Americans have been hearing a lot these days about green jobs -- jobs that can get America's economy running again and improve the environment at the same time. What kind of workers are making a living with these clean energy manufacturing jobs? Meet some of them here:
See Who's Working in the Clean Energy Economy
Invest in Clean Energy. Invest in …
Jim Bauer, PA | Eric Chamberlain, MO | Kevin Conklin, CA | Matt DiNisco, NY
Troy Galloway, PA | Wes McGuire, OH | Richard McBride, PA | David McCaulley, TX
Gerald Nickelson, MO | Erica Owensby, OH | Robin Scott, PA | Jeff Wolfe, VT
What's a green job? Manufacturing, delivering and installing clean energy technologies such as wind turbines and solar panels. Renovating buildings and energy systems to make them more efficient and save money. Installing glass in energy efficient windows. Making batteries for hybrid cars. The list goes on.
These are the clean energy manufacturing jobs that will get America working again, and they're the most important tools we have to jump-start the U.S. economy, repower America and fight global warming.
Clean energy jobs have enormous economic potential because millions of Americans already have the skills that they require.
Clean energy investments will create opportunities for welders, sheet metal workers, machinists, truck drivers and others -- and the benefits of those new jobs would spread throughout the economy.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors estimates that hundreds of thousands of people are already employed in the clean energy economy. And a recent study from the Pew Charitable Trusts says that the number of clean energy jobs in the United States grew two and a half times faster than job growth in the economy as a whole over the last decade.
But we can do much more for our economy, our workers and our environment.
By investing $150 billion in clean energy, the United States can create entirely new industries, with the businesses and jobs required to make them run -- 1.7 million net new jobs in just two years, according to a report from the Center for American Progress.
That's far more jobs than the same investment in fossil fuels would produce, and a lot more opportunities for Americans, especially those who need them the most, according to a June 2009 report commissioned by NRDC in collaboration with Green for All and prepared by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Consider the potential benefits of clean energy jobs for lower-income Americans, as highlighted by the PERI report:
- An investment of $150 billion a year in clean energy -- roughly 1 percent of national GDP -- would result in 1.7 million new jobs, with about 870,000 of them accessible to workers with a high school degree or less.
- About 614,000 of the new jobs available to workers with a high school degree or less will offer decent opportunities for promotion and rising wages over time, helping lift low-income workers out of poverty.
- The potential for clean-energy job creation within this category is seven times larger than the number of jobs that could be created by spending the same amount of money within the fossil fuel industry.
By investing in energy efficiency and sustainability, we can solve America's energy crisis, the climate crisis and the economic crisis at the same time.
America Wants Clean Energy Jobs
U.S. workers speak out about the need to invest in clean energy technology and create millions of new, good-paying jobs that repower America and build a better future.
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GREEN PROSPERITY
How Clean-Energy Policies Can Fight Poverty and Raise Living Standards
This June 2009 report finds that investments in clean energy will create more jobs than equivalent spending on fossil fuels and help raise the standard of living for lower-income Americans.
last revised 6/11/2009
