Iowa stands to gain jobs by investing in global-warming solutions

 (September 9, 2008) — As Congress takes up debate this week on legislation to confront the current energy crisis, a new report released today by The Political Economy Research Institute shows that the U.S. can create two million jobs nationwide by investing in clean energy technologies that will strengthen the economy and fight global warming. The report finds that investing in clean energy would create four times as many jobs as spending the same amount of money within the oil industry, and in Iowa, 21,000 – jobs would be created.

“This report is very encouraging, but bases its numbers solely on state population numbers – if we take Iowa's huge resource base for renewable energy like wind, solar and biomass into account, the numbers would undoubtedly be far higher,” said Michelle Kenyon Brown, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Energy Association (IRENEW). IRENEW hosts it 17th annual renewable energy expo this weekend in Cedar Falls, showcasing the latest in clean energy technologies.

“Green Recovery – A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy” analyzes the potential for a two year $100 billion green investment program – which would be comparable to the size of the April 2008 federal stimulus package dedicated to consumer rebates – to be an engine for job creation in Iowa and nationwide. The program could be paid for with proceeds from auctions of carbon permits under a global warming cap-and-trade program.  A global warming cap-and-trade program will drive private investments into clean energy and raise public revenue through carbon permit auctions. A cap will enable America to reduce global warming pollution to the levels science indicates are needed to avoid the worst effects of global warming.

The package is illustrative of the potential for clean energy – and specifically green infrastructure investments – to create new jobs and strengthen the economy.  The specific package would invest in six green infrastructure priorities: retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency, expanding mass transit and freight rail, constructing “smart” electrical grid transmission systems, wind power, solar power, and next-generation biofuels. 

In addition to creating two million jobs nationwide over two years, a $100 billion initial investment in our clean energy future would:

∑ Create nearly four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry and 300,000 more jobs than a similar amount of spending directed toward household consumption via an economic stimulus refund to taxpayers.
∑ Create roughly triple the number of good jobs — paying at least $16 dollars an hour — as spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.   
∑ Bolster employment especially in construction and manufacturing.  Construction employment has fallen from 8 million to 7.2 million over the past two years due to the housing bubble collapse.  The Green Recovery program can, at the least, bring back these lost 800,000 construction jobs.

The report was written by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, under commission by the Center for American Progress (CAP) and released by a coalition of labor and environmental groups.  The authors of the report are Robert Pollin, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, James Heintz, and Helen Scharber of PERI. For the complete report findings go to www.peri.umass.edu/green_recovery

For more on the IRENEW Energy Expo, please visit www.irenew.org on the web.

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PERI Contact:  Debbie Zeidenberg, (413) 577-3147; dzeiden@peri.umass.edu
CAP Contact:  John Neurohr, (202) 481-8182; jneurohr@americanprogress.org
Local Contact: Mike Carberry (319)594-6453; michaelcarberry@hotmail.com