10 States Where Green Jobs Thrive

Although the states with the greatest numbers of green jobs relative to total employment vary in many ways, they share several characteristics. Many of these states have among the highest rates of public land — land owned by federal and state governments. Colorado, Idaho and Alaska have among the highest rates of public land in the country, which allows for conservation and conservation related jobs to flourish.

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Comments

[atexasdem]

12:21 PM on 04/02/2012

I'm amazed at the posturing and ignorance being posted here about "green" energy. The term green can apply to any energy conservation or generation application. In the plains of west Texas there are massive wind farms being built to take advantage of the constant winds from the mid west. Local community collages are building courses on how to maintain the wind mills. Upon graduation from a two year program people are walking into jobs that start at over $20 an hour and go up. This is in areas with traditional high unemployment. Ranchers love the wind farms because they can still grow crops or raise cattle in the same field while rent on their land comes in every month.
Solar is also expanding in Texas. Texas recently changed the law such that an electrician must also be certified in solar installations if he's going into that field which BTW also pays very well. Local community collages have taken up the task of training the workforce for high paying jobs. Solar is practical away from major cities. Our domestic natural gas industry is expanding when the nation makes the switch to American produced natural gas powered vehicles. Green is more than subways and adding insulation to your house. To deny the green revolution is like denying that computers will ever change the world. Ignore it and you'll be left in the dust.

[janesvillekidd]

04:09 AM on 04/02/2012

Green jobs are a threat to the country.

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

06:45 AM on 04/02/2012

How? By getting us off oil both foreign and domestic?

[janesvillekidd]

07:03 AM on 04/02/2012

I will never drive anything that doesn't have a V8 in it. Will never believe in global warming. Or support any liberal movements even if it would save the world!

[atexasdem]

12:41 PM on 04/02/2012

Ignorance is the greatest threat to any nation. The only difference between a developed first world nation and a third world nation is the education level of it's people.

[robertzhawkins]

03:15 AM on 04/02/2012

So how can you get in on this expansion of the clean, mean and "green" industries? By getting a "green" job that pays handsomely, of course you need a degree from universities like High Speed Universities.

[atexasdem]

12:45 PM on 04/02/2012

I see you've already prepared your excuses for failure. Instead of that why not actually go to your local community collage and get some real world skills and a decent paying job with a future.http://www.campusexplorer.com/colleges/in/Texas/249011DC/Lubbock/

[mathme]

02:00 AM on 04/02/2012

Dear god. That site you link to is THE WORST. Could you throw any more annoying crap up in the window? FFS.

[WESTistheman]

01:25 AM on 04/02/2012

Ten states? State of denial. State of ignorance. State of propaganda. State of make believe. State of the utopian dream. What are the other 5 states?

[mathme]

02:01 AM on 04/02/2012

Are you saying that they don't have those jobs? Are you suggesting that china isn't exporting green tech and lapping us now? We're locking ourselves in the mid 20th century with stupidity like yours..

[atexasdem]

12:50 PM on 04/02/2012

"Conservatives" dream of a fictionalized 19th century lifestyle that never existed anyway. Leave it To Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet were fictional characters on television. They were not real. Republicans need to realize this.

[atexasdem]

10:25 AM on 04/03/2012

America built most of it's basic infrastructure from 1930 to 1980 using technology of the day. Power grids, inland waterways, massive dams, interstate transportation and communication systems. China is now building it's infrastructure systems using technology of today and of coarse it's more advanced. America's real problem is we have ignored maintenance and upgrading of our infrastructure. Comparing American and Chinese infrastructure today is like comparing an old car that has had very poor care to a brand new car off the showroom floor.

[MuchMadness]

10:50 PM on 04/01/2012

Vermont has to be green. It's got green in its name.

[Jose Soberanes]

10:31 PM on 04/01/2012

The green economy often is cited as a key driver of the national economic recovery. LOL!!!! What a crock!!

[mathme]

02:02 AM on 04/02/2012

Good rebuttal. You go burn some coal, we're going to progress. Thanks.

[txb19]

10:20 PM on 04/01/2012

Too bad I don't see Texas on the list. Except for hydro, we have most renewable energy sources, sun, wind, wide open spaces. I guess we lack the political will...

[mathme]

02:05 AM on 04/02/2012

Yep. you could go straight north from texas in about a 500 mile-wide strip of the nation where there is so much open space that is just begging for wind and solar-- some states (like Iowa) are taking advantage, but then you have the mentality of some of the twits posting here who hate it because they see *the methods that you use to spin magnets in a coil* as having some kind of political bias. That not burning coal or polluting is a violation of some deep principle.

[atexasdem]

01:25 PM on 04/02/2012

You'll like this link about what's going on in west Texas. Also links to numerous other relevant sites.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFPj9frhKuo

[atexasdem]

12:31 PM on 04/02/2012

Texas is currently the number one producer of wind generated energy by far and it's not just from our politicians. Lets face it, many people especially the eastern elite hate Texas. Speaking as a native Texan, who cares? I may be a liberal Democrat but I'm still a native born UT graduate and proud Texan. Others talk the talk, Texans walk the walk.

[jwoww]

10:13 PM on 04/01/2012

Drill baby drill. Oil gas coal!

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

11:12 PM on 04/01/2012

More domestic drilling has not lowered prices. Also oil, gas, coal are finite resources.

Solar power production prices in a few years will be cheaper then getting power from coal or nuclear power.

Already several countries are seeing that a few hundred million dollars in wind mills gets them more electricity then several nuclear power plants costing a few billion dollars each.

[WESTistheman]

01:26 AM on 04/02/2012

LOL, like all the European countries that invested heavily in it and now are running away from it?

[Van Plotts]

07:49 PM on 04/01/2012

I will take my union pay union job romal laying those old nasty fossil fuel natural gas lines here in Pa,over some green non union job ANYTIME

[atexasdem]

12:36 PM on 04/02/2012

The IBEW has completely remodeled their apprenticeship program to focus on providing skilled workers for the newest "Green" power generation and distribution systems. IBEW electricians are rushing to get certified in solar electric installations and maintenance. If you refuse to change or stay with yesterdays technology you'd better be close to retirement because we intend to change the world as you know it.

[TSRVT]

07:41 PM on 04/01/2012

We're number 1! But we can do much, much better.

[Stuzzadelic]

07:46 PM on 04/01/2012

Fanned.

[atexasdem]

01:04 PM on 04/02/2012

You use energy wisely, we'll continue to provide it.

[Viper]

06:46 PM on 04/01/2012

Denmark aims to get 50% of all electricity from wind powerThe country aims to supply 35% of its total energy from renewables by 2020 and 100% by 2050

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/26/wind-energy-denmark

[BluePhantom2]

09:50 PM on 04/01/2012

And they will fail horrible and be left sitting in the dark.

[JWerner]

12:05 AM on 04/02/2012

Buying into the lies, are we?

[atexasdem]

09:55 AM on 04/03/2012

While you sit by the fire in your cave?

[WESTistheman]

01:29 AM on 04/02/2012

Denmark has 5.5 million people, a larger sample is needed for real results

[mathme]

02:09 AM on 04/02/2012

What's your theoretical basis for that conclusion? Asspull?

[Viper]

06:44 PM on 04/01/2012

For the last two years more than half of all new wind power was added outside of the traditional markets of Europe and North America, mainly driven by the continuing boom in China which accounted for nearly half of all of the installations at 18,000 MW. China now has 62,733 MW of wind power installed.[2]

wiki

[Viper]

06:43 PM on 04/01/2012

Although a variable source of power, the intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when using wind power to supply up to 20% of total electricity demand, but as the proportion rises, increased costs, a need to use storage such as pumped-storage hydroelectricity, upgrade the grid, or a lowered ability to supplant conventional production may occur.[14][15][16] Power management techniques such as excess capacity, storage, dispatchable backing supply (usually natural gas), exporting and importing power to neighboring areas or reducing demand when wind production is low, can mitigate these problems.


wiki

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

08:05 PM on 04/01/2012

Wind can produce more power then several nuclear power plants at fraction of the cost.

Energy storage methods like flywheel generators not only store the excess green power produced by solar and wind during the sunny days and windy days but prevent brown outs. Energy storage methods also benefit non green energy production methods.

FYI people there are solar power plants that can produce power 24 hours of the day and due to the storing of excess energy they can produce power for several days without the sun.

[JWerner]

12:08 AM on 04/02/2012

That's why most of the reasonable green-energy advocates are pushing for a multi-pronged approach. Nobody is saying we should rely 100% on wind power. If anything, 20-25% would seem to be a nice benchmark. Do another 25-35% with solar, some more with hyro and geothermal. . .and we're talking massive improvement in energy independence and efficiency, without all the hidden costs of emissions, spills, etc.

[atexasdem]

01:11 PM on 04/02/2012

The attitude of building one giant electrical plant, sized to meet maximum anticipated demand is a relic of the past. Tomorrows power will be supplied from a variety of sources depending on available resources. Grids will be sized to reflect average instead of maximum loads. Electrical rates will vary depending on demand vs availability. Look for more high energy demand industries changing their work hours to reflect discounted energy rates based on cheaper off hours demand. The energy revolution is just beginning.

[Viper]

06:42 PM on 04/01/2012

"Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, and uses little land. In operation, the overall cost per unit of energy produced is similar to the cost for new coal and natural gas installations.[17] The construction of wind farms is not universally welcomed, but any effects on the environment from wind power are generally much less problematic than those of any other power source.[18] "

wiki

[atexasdem]

01:18 PM on 04/02/2012

You might enjoy this video of what is going on in West Texas in regards to wind turbines. Also some good links to other related sites.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFPj9frhKuo