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Guest Opinion: Renewable energy opportunity is clear Sunday Feb 26, 2017 at 12:01 AM By Juliet Grable In a recent editorial on energy reform published on The Hill, a political website, Rep. Greg Walden heralded the opportunity presented by our new Republican president in combination with Republican control of the House and Senate. He criticized the “barrage of red-tape regulations” set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy during the Obama Administration — regulations he claims “impeded energy development, prematurely shuttered coal plants, delayed or blocked job-creating new projects, crippled innovation and stifled economic growth.” According to our District 2 representative, “Businesses and American ingenuity took a back seat to the Obama administration’s regulatory onslaught, and the American people suffered.” Later in his commentary, Walden applauds President Trump’s executive order to expedite regulatory reviews and approvals for infrastructure projects, which included memoranda relating to the construction of the “job-creating Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines.” While I applaud Rep. Walden’s desire to create jobs, I don’t believe they should or need to come in the form of short-term construction jobs for new fossil fuel infrastructure. I’m also baffled by his depiction of the energy sector today. The DOE published its annual U.S. Energy and Employment report in January. In direct contrast to Walden’s statement about “crippled innovation,” this report states that “energy innovation is proving itself as the important driver of economic growth in America, producing 14 percent of the new jobs in 2016.” It is hard to believe that Rep. Walden is not aware of the robust growth in the renewable energy industries over the past several years. In 2016, one in every 50 new jobs came from the solar sector. The U.S. solar industry employed 260,077 workers last year, a nearly 25 percent increase in the number of jobs from 2015. Today, more Americans work in the solar industry than at natural gas or coal power plants. Wind power is also experiencing rapid growth. According to the DOE report, jobs in the American wind industry increased 32 percent in 2016. Tom Kiernan, the CEO of American Wind Energy Association, predicts that the wind industry will support 380,000 well-paying jobs by 2030. But an equally important story is the one about the growth of jobs in the energy efficiency sector. According to the DOE report, energy efficiency jobs increased by 133,000 in 2016, and now total 2.2 million. These jobs include workers in high-efficiency lighting, efficient appliance manufacturing; and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) services to reduce wasted energy in homes, schools and businesses. They also include people designing and building energy-efficient homes and businesses and workers installing energy-efficient features. According to DOE, these type of jobs are expected to increase by 9 percent in 2017. The DOE report also provides state-specific information. Notably, Oregon provides 41,869 jobs related to energy efficiency, many more than the traditional energy sector, which supports 26,705 jobs. Most of the state’s energy efficiency employees work in high-efficiency HVAC and renewable heating and cooling firms, followed by advanced materials and insulation. But even more notably, 100 percent of the Oregon employers surveyed noted that finding skilled workers for these energy efficiency jobs is either “somewhat difficult” (54.2 percent) or “very difficult” (45.8 percent). This represents a huge opportunity. If Walden is really interested in creating permanent, good-paying jobs for Americans — and specifically, for Oregonians — he will support training programs that increase the supply of energy efficiency workers and programs that incentivize higher energy efficiency standards and renewable energy. Such actions would not only boost local economies, they would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately benefiting all of us. Short-term fossil fuel jobs, on the other hand, come at the expense of communities, water supplies, and health, ultimately increasing carbon emissions and exacerbating climate change. Oregon made a bold commitment to our collective futures in 2016, by passing the Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Act. Through this legislation, the state’s two major utilities committed to weaning themselves from coal energy completely by 2030. By 2040, renewable energy will represent 50 percent of the energy portfolio. This mandate, combined with current trends in renewable energy and energy efficiency, represent a plum opportunity. With the right leadership, Oregon can enjoy a thriving economy now and contribute to a healthy planet for future generations. — Juliet Grable of Ashland, the former managing editor for Green Builder magazine, is a freelance writer and is working on her second book.