The Refinishing Touch Blog

In early January, the Obama administration announced an award of $2.3 billion in Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits, designed to stimulate job growth in the clean energy sector. While the government’s plans are commendable, they need help to succeed. Despite willing workers and an influx of funding, the clean energy movement has been slow to get off the ground. Furthermore, because the term ‘green job’ in the eco-friendly energy sector has such a vague definition and is not held up to any real standards, employers can label any job a ‘green job’ without worrying about accountability.

On top of that, many clean energy projects have been sprouting up, but often without actual jobs in tow. For example, a 36 thousand acre Texas wind farm seemed poised to create a number of jobs, using $1.5 billion of stimulus money, but the project, financed by China’s Shenyang Power Group, fell through. Although it required nearly 3 thousand workers, only 15 percent of those would have been for citizens in the United States.

Luckily, creating green energy jobs while adopting environmentally friendly practices has become a top priority for the government, and the pieces for creating a fruitful clean energy sector are there: a willing administration, an International Labour Organization that sees value in going green, stimulus money and opportunity. With more time and some redirected efforts, decision-makers can take these factors and help turn possibility into actuality.

Labels: Clean energy, government, green efforts, Green energy, Green Jobs

Following our recent post about the top green cities in the US, and in the spirit of that theme we were interested to see Florida in the press for the number of green jobs the state is creating.

According to business owners and a director from PEW Center on the States, Florida green business owners are creating new jobs, although consistent funding and policy support is needed.

Florida has also been noted by PEW Charitable Trusts for having its clean energy economy grow by 7.9% between 1998 and 2007 and is now within the top ten for green jobs – which is brilliant news for the state.

Lori Grange, Interim Deputy Director of PEW Center on the states, feels that Florida is only behind other states because of public policy questions. In this she noted Florida's failure to succeed with Governor Charlie Crist's proposed renewable energy portfolio standard. For Florida to have embraced this, a proportion of the state's energy would have to be produced from renewable sources. And while this isn't happening in Florida, it's already happening in 29 other states.

Florida also hasn't become involved in regional carbon and climate change initiatives, but Grange pointed out that is it developing its own carbon cap and trade program. Florida was among one of the top 10 states for jobs in clean energy in 2007, and half of its $116,980,000 of venture capital funds over the last three years has gone toward supporting clean energy generation.

In the whole of the US, jobs in clean energy grew by 9.1%, while total jobs grew by only 3.7% - a fantastic comparison – at The Refinishing Touch we applaud all initiatives that boost green employment, create awareness and, of course, encourage sustainability.

Labels: Florida, Green, Green Jobs, PEW Center on the States