In the fall of 2000, a small but visionary group of environmental entrepreneurs bet big on our clean energy future. We believed we could create jobs and spur growth by investing in secure and renewable sources of power, new ways to recycle, and the next generation of energy and resource efficient cars, homes and workplaces.
A decade later, we're no longer small -- and we're no longer going on faith. The group we founded -- Environmental Entrepreneurs, or E2 -- represents business leaders who've founded 1100 companies that have created 500,000 jobs in 41 states.
Putting half a million Americans to work is a monumental accomplishment at any time. It's near miraculous, though, to do so during the worst recession since World War II, when nearly one worker in ten can't find a job.
The clean energy sector is just getting started. While traditional industries shed jobs, in fact, we're leading our economy into a future ripe with promise.
Just a few years ago, the wind energy sector barely existed. Now it employs 85,000 Americans, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
These are good jobs. They typically pay anywhere between $41,500 a year for a machinist to $95,000 a year for a top engineer. And they're not just in states like Texas, Iowa and California, the leaders in wind energy production. Americans are making wind turbines in South Carolina, blades in South Dakota, steel for towers in Indiana, electrical components in Ohio. Workers in other states across the country produce the concrete, aluminum, fiberglass, rubber, generators, gears and other materials and equipment that go into making wind turbines.
Other examples abound:
The clean energy sector has created entire professions that didn't exist just five years ago. Chief sustainability officers are in demand at Fortune 500 companies. Production managers are being hired to oversee biofuels production, cogeneration operations and energy efficiency accounting.
Met any solar energy systems engineers or fuel cell engineers lately?
You will. And they're making between $77,000 and $89,000 a year. How about environmental economists? There were 15,000 of them two years ago; there will be 5,000 more by 2018, and they're earning, on average, $87,000 annually.
Despite these gains, some of our oil and gas companies have joined smokestack industry to try to bridle future progress and hamstring job growth, all in the name of preserving their profits.
Here in California, oil companies like Texas-based Valero and Tesoro have joined forces with the likes of Koch Industries, the coal producer based in Kansas, to spend more than $10 million trying to turn back the clock on our clean energy economy. They're behind Proposition 23, the pernicious effort to thwart California's progressive climate change laws.
Similarly, the oil and gas lobby has spent more than $1 billion over the past decade -- including a record $168 million last year alone -- on a legion of Washington lobbyists 700 strong. They've devoted themselves to trying to block the kind of comprehensive energy and climate legislation we need to make the most of a clean energy future we know can generate another 2 million American jobs.
The national, non-partisan community of business leaders who belong to E2 still believes in the huge potential of this clean energy future. More than that, we now stand on a record of policy of successes, the results of which have put half a million Americans to work already.
We won't stop there. We can put 2 million more back to work in industries that can make our country more secure, reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and create a healthier future for our children. And that's what we intend to do.
In the meantime, E2 will celebrate a decade of solid results by standing up for American workers, speaking out against those who would hold back the tide of progress, and investing in the clean economy of the future that we all deserve. For more of a view on E2, its history, accomplishments and our commitment to the future, please see The E2 Legacy paper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-iK_a8-fc
(disclaimer: the company who produces these videos is a client of mine)
http://transmission.bpa.gov/business/operations/Wind/baltwg.aspx
(wish the Huffington Post had an edit feature)
BPA Balancing Authority Load and Total Wind, Hydro, and Thermal Generation
It's near real-time, updated in 5-minute increments. Of particular note is the plot for the 2780 MW of installed wind (blue line at bottom) capacity that BPA has. For the last week (16 - 22 OCT, 2010), it has been at ZERO except for a few hours. All that installed capacity, gone, because mother nature decided that we didn't need it. What's the point of employing 85,000 people in an industry that only provides a product when nature cooperates?
wooo hooo!!!!!
It has been proven conclusively that not only does rooftop solar provide TWICE the jobs of Big Solar and THREE TIMES the jobs of Big Wind (See CARB report, this summer), but also that the money GOES TO THE PEOPLE, NOT TO BIG ENERGY. This is the critical, critical piece that is ruining everything. If Big Energy gets to steal all our money and land and greenwash it, of course people are going to be angry and rebel against "renewable energy."
Make it work for regular people, so we get a simple return on investment, and EVERYONE WILL AGREE, and our property values will increase, we will get more and better jobs, and our local economies will improve because the money is flowing right into OUR hands, not into the hands of super-wealthy "investors" who TAKE money from communities.
This is such a simple, proven idea (see, eg., Germany and every other successful clean energy program), but since it doesn't profit the Oligarchs as much, we keep getting denied, and there is this fake fight between Big Energy and Big Energy.
Recently, the current 11 year sunspot cycle began. So far, two solar threat events missed earth. NASA suggests, if either had hit earth's geomagnetic field, 130 million Americans might lose power for many weeks. The cost the first year might equal that of both current wars!
See: http://www.aesopinstitute.org
Imagine New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, Seattle and most of the Eastern U.S. without grid power for a period of several weeks or months.
The steps necessary to rapidly reduce dependence on power grids can accelerate development of little known, slowly emerging, potentially extremely inexpensive, green systems.
This opens a politically workable way to accelerate the development of cheap green power.
Focus on that objective. Why would anyone fight it?
Cheap green power can supersede the fruitless debate over climate change.
And effectively fight Global Warming, boost the economy, generate lots of jobs and reduce dependency on fossil fuels and unstable areas of the globe.
The Aesop website outlines presently hard-to-believe, very low-cost, alternatives that are expected to power homes, businesses, automobiles and trucks.
Future vehicles might become power plants when suitably parked. No wires needed. They will become alternatives to coal and nuclear plants. Even better, they could pay for themselves!
Imagine what could be accomplished once cost-competitive paths exist to prevent the little recognized threat of massive power failures!
The moment has arrived to accelerate the needed Research and Development.