Create 5 million "green" jobs

Seeds planted for greens jobs, but will they bear fruit?

Updated: Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 | By David G. Taylor

Throughout his 2008 presidential campaign Barack Obama promised to create 5 million "green” jobs to both mitigate unemployment and boost the nascent clean energy sector. "We'll invest $15 billion a year over the next decade in renewable energy, creating five million new green jobs that pay well, can't be outsourced and help end our dependence on foreign oil," Obama said during the fall of 2008.

When we last updated this item, Congress, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, had allocated billions of dollars to this effort. The funding included $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy investors, $17 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy, and $2 billion for energy-efficient battery manufacturing.

Did the seed planted by the American Recovery and Investment Act germinate into a field of greens?

First, we should clarify what is meant by "green jobs.” Perhaps the best definitions come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In December 2009, President Obama signed the 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which appropriated $8 million to the BLS to use to determine the number of green jobs in the United States. The BLS will release two surveys of this data in 2012. The BLS uses two definitions for "green” jobs -- one for each survey:

• Jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources.

• Jobs in which workers' duties involve making their establishment's production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources.

Until the BLS completes these surveys, the exact number of newly created green jobs is open to debate. The Council of Economic Advisers -- which advises the president on economic matters --claims that 225,000 green jobs have been saved or created through the first nine months of 2010. This was accomplished through an $80 billion injection from the stimulus. The White House further predicts that 825,000 green jobs will be filled by the end of President Obama"s current term in office. Both numbers, however, are estimates.

Even if the 225,000 number is accurate, it's clear that President Obama has a long way to go in fulfilling his pledge to create 5 million green jobs. June 2011 employment data evinces the difficulty in fulfilling this pledge -- with anemic job growth of 18,000 and a rise in the unemployment rate to 9.2 percent. Furthermore, with political debate focused on cutting expenditures, future government investment in such programs appears unlikely.

Finally, it's fair to say that Obama didn"t predict the severe economic downturn of recent years when he made his promise. That downturn is slowing down all job growth, including green jobs, said Robert Greenstein, president of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "Any job creation target espoused in 2008 was made at a time when no one expected the economy would suffer such a deep financial and economic crisis and have unemployment so high and job creation so low for such an extended period,” Greenstein said. "So any job creation goal is going to be hard to reach, regardless of how effective the policies in question may be, until the economy has a much stronger recovery.”

Hard numbers are difficult to come by until the BLS releases its green jobs study next year. It's entirely possible that the 5 million or more green jobs may be created within a decade once the national economy recovers. As of yet, there is simply not enough data to accurately gauge the progress in green job growth. Because of this, we continue to rate this promise as In the Works.

Sources:

Bureau of Labor Statistics - Measuring Green Jobs website.

Bureau of Labor Statistics - The 2010 President's Budget for the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.

The Independent, "Obama's green jobs revolution,” November 2, 2008.

POLITICO, "Green jobs success eludes President Obama,” June 12, 2011.

National Public Radio, "Obama Discusses Green Jobs In N.C.", June 13, 2011.

CNET, "Obama signs stimulus plan, touts clean energy,” February 17, 2009.

E-mail interview with Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  

Green jobs aplenty in stimulus and proposed budget

Updated: Friday, March 20th, 2009 | By Robert Farley

This is a long-term promise and we are only in the third month of the Obama presidency, but there's plenty of "green job" stuff in both the economic stimulus package signed by Obama in February as well as in the administration's proposed 2010 budget, enough that we wanted to acknowledge the progress made toward this promise.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the economic stimulus, includes nearly $17 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy, including $5 billion to weatherize low-income homes; $3.1 billion for state energy programs; $2 billion for advanced battery manufacturing grants to encourage production of plug-in hybrid and electric cars; and $3.2 billion for energy efficiency and conservation block grants.

There's also $6 billion in the stimulus to modernize the nation's electricity grid; as well as hundreds of millions for research into renewable energy technologies like biomass and geothermal.

And it includes more than $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy investors. Together with renewable tax credits, the White House estimates that will result in $100 billion in private investment in renewable energy projects.

Obama's proposed 2010 budget includes:

* Support for loan guarantees for innovative energy technologies "including renewable energy projects, transmission projects, and carbon sequestration projects that avoid, reduce or sequester air pollutants and greenhouse gases while simultaneously creating green jobs."

* Support for the plan to modernize the nation's electric grid.

* Investments in clean energy technologies including biofuels, renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

* Increased funding for scientific research, including the development of clean energy technologies like solar, biomass, geothermal, wind and low-carbon emission coal power.

It's too early to say how many green jobs all of this will translate into. Suffice to say a lot. Five million? Time will tell. But there's enough in these two plans to move this to In the Works.

Sources:

Office of Budget and Management, Budget Documents for Fiscal Year 2010

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Department of Energy, Overview of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act)

DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Allots $16.8 Billion for EERE , Feb. 17, 2009