Washington, DC — The Alliance for Climate Protection's Repower America campaign and Blue Green Alliance are promoting the job creation that can come about from clean energy policies with a nationwide tour.
The groups are showing off clean energy businesses in an effort to show the benefits to moving to a clean energy economy, pointing to a Blue Green Alliance report that states 850,000 manufacturing jobs at existing companies could be created if the U.S. set a national renewable energy standard. A Center for American Progress report also says a $150 billion annual investment in clean energy would create 1.7 million jobs, in areas as far ranging as retrofitting buildings to manufacturing electric cars.
While there has been a steady stream of companies boosting their job counts due to investments or stimulus money, there are still worries that, on the whole, a transition to a cleaner, low-carbon economy will lead to more jobs lost than created, reports The New York Times.
Robert Pollin, co-director of the University of Massachusetts' Political Economy Research Institute, calculates that for every $1 million invested in green energy development, 17 new jobs are created, a higher multiplier than tax cuts or fossil-fuel investments produce. But he said, "The hole in the economy is so big, even if these programs are successful, that alone won't make up for the jobs that have been lost."
David Kreutzer, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis, told a congressional hearing in April that by his calculations, the creation of new jobs in green energy sectors would be overwhelmed by losses of existing jobs in coal production, coal-based energy generation, oil refining and other industries most at risk from the carbon restrictions sought by Congress' Democratic leadership.
That concern has led the International Trade Union Confederation, which has shown support for a move to a low-carbon economy and greenhouse gas emission cuts, to push for worker protection to be included in the newest United Nations climate agreement, which is set to be decided this December.
The Confederation, which represents 168 million workers in 155 countries, supported the addition of a phrase urging "a just transition of the workforce" into a draft text of the latest climate pact in an effort to provide social protections to workers, Reuters reported.
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