Research and Policy

October 2010 | Clean Tech Job Trends 2010

Green-job naysayers often question the validity of green jobs, stating that there’s no clear definition for what constitutes a green job and that any new jobs in clean tech simply displace jobs from other sectors, creating no new net jobs. But clean-tech jobs are not amorphous as these critics claim, and instead represent some of the most dynamic sectors in the technology landscape, including electric vehicles (cars, trucks, and rail), energy storage, green-building materials, advanced lighting, solar power, wind energy, and the smart grid.

A Political Economy Research Institute report released in late 2008, Green Recovery, estimated that $100 billion spent on clean energy over a 10-year period could create two million new jobs, compared to just 500,000 jobs if the money were invested in oil and gas-related industries. The Center for American Progress, in a related Green Jobs 101 fact sheet, states that “renewable energy and efficiency improvements create twice as many jobs per unit of energy and per dollar invested than traditional fossil fuel-based generating technologies.”

October 2010 | Communications Requirements of Smart Grid Technologies

As Energy Secretary Steven Chu has noted, “America cannot build a 21st Century energy economy with a mid-20th Century electricity system.” Transforming the current grid into a dynamic, resilient, and adaptable Smart Grid will be one of the biggest technological challenges of our times. The rewards, however, may be dramatic, enabling consumers to better control their electricity use, integrating the next generation of plug-in electric vehicles, increasing efficiency, and better harnessing renewable energy.

The Smart Grid will be able to revolutionize electricity generation, delivery, and use in this nation by combining the two-way flow of electricity with the two-way flow of information. It will leverage the benefits of modern computing capabilities to process information about electricity usage more dynamically and enable adjustments in electricity usage to make our use of electricity more efficient and reliable.

This report sets forth the findings of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the communications requirements of electric utilities and proposes specific recommendations for next steps to support these requirements. In order to analyze these requirements properly, this report will review the projected requirements of various components of the Smart Grid.

September 2010 | Efficiency Works: Creating Good Jobs in New Markets through Energy Efficiency

The United States is mired in an urgent jobs crisis. Despite some early signs of a sustained economic recovery, in many parts of the country the debilitating fallout from the Great Recession on employment remains a painful fact of daily life. Few industries have felt the economic downturn harder than the construction industry, which suffered the most from the consequences of a decade of gross mismanagement of our nation’s mortgage markets and financial services industries.

Collapsing demand for labor in construction industries is devastating to American families and communities nationwide. To confront this crisis, the U.S. jobs market needs sustained new demand for the skills of construction workers that is grounded in providing real value to the economy through enhanced productivity, greater efficiency, and improved asset value for real estate. For that to happen, we need a sound strategy for investment in our nation’s stock of residential and commercial buildings—a strategy that will get banks lending again, put construction crews back on the job, and improve the long-term economic value of buildings for homeowners, businesses, and investors alike.

August 2010 | The Need for Essential Consumer Protections: Smart Metering Proposals and the Move to Time-Based Pricing

There is widespread consensus that the U.S. distribution and transmission systems for vital electricity service need to be modernized and upgraded. This modernization has been recently promoted under the rubric of the Smart Grid.

The Smart Grid vision has three primary parts: (1) new communication and digital sensors and automation capabilities for the distribution and transmission systems; (2) new digital metering systems for all customers; and (3) direct interfaces between the new metering systems and customers through inhome technologies.

July 2010 | Wasted Food, Wasted Energy: The Embedded Energy in Food Waste in the United States

Recent food shortages, blamed in part on the growth of the biofuels industry (1, 2), have created a new awareness of the relationship between food and energy. Food is not only a form of energy but also a consumer of fossil energy in its production, transportation, and preparation. Historically this has been a positive relationship: the last 50 years have seen increased agricultural productivity thanks to the adoption of new technologies and inputs (3), which are largely based on fossil fuels.The increase in the energy intensity of agriculture has brought with it unprecedented yields with minimal humanlabor.

Productivity improvements have been achieved through a variety of means, including mechanization of the agriculture sector, improved fertilizers, more resilient crops, and the development of pesticides (4), all of which rely on fossil fuels.

April 2010 | Opinion of African Americans on Climate Change and 2010 Midterm Elections: The Results of a Multi-State Poll

According to the poll, a majority of African Americans in four battleground states – Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri and South Carolina – see climate change as a critical issue that will affect their votes in the November midterm elections.

The poll which included a survey of 500 black voters in each of the four states, was conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a research and public policy institution that focuses on the concerns of African Americans and other people of color.

April 2010 | Measuring the Green Economy

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics Administration provides an important initial step toward measuring the size and composition of the emerging green economy and the number of green jobs it has created.  By using publicly-available data on more than 20,000 products and services, the report shows that the green economy is well-poised for growth. Principal findings of the report include:

* Shipments/receipts of green products and services comprise between $371 billion to $516 billion in 2007.

* The number of green jobs ranged from about 1.8 million to 2.4 million.

* Green manufacturing jobs totaled between 200,000 and 240,000.

* Green services jobs were much higher, and totaled between 1.4 million and 1.8 million.

* Energy conservation, resource conservation and pollution control were the predominant green activities, accounting for about 80% to 90% of green shipments/receipts and employment.

February 2010 | Where Have All the Date Gone? The Crisis of Missing Energy Efficiency Data

Energy efficiency represents one of the most effective resources for addressing the challenges of climate change, economic productivity, and national security. All levels of government, and many businesses, rely upon accurate energy efficiency analyses in order to shape policy and outline business growth plans.

The role of good, reliable, and timely data becomes even more imperative given the scale of energy efficiency investment necessary to tackle the climate change problem. Dependable and accurate analyses require good energy and market data, much of which has historically been collected by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and other governmental data agencies. This report identifies existing data gaps and provides justification for enhanced funding of data collection related to energy efficiency in FY 2011 and beyond. ACEEE has compiled data on EIA funding levels over the past 32 years.

March 2010 | Ranking State’s Oil Vulnerability: Assessing the Continued Threat of Gas Price Spikes

Americans are struggling to pull themselves out of an economic recession. While gasoline prices are now lower than the highs of July 2008, prices remain higher than they were last year. In these difficult times, gasoline prices pinch more than usual, and rising gasoline prices could be a drag on economic recovery.

This reality reminds us that America’s addiction to oil continues to threaten not only our national security and global environmental health, but also our economic strength. This analysis updates NRDC’s previous research to identify the states that were most economically vulnerable to oil prices in 2009. It also explores a hypothetical scenario: What would happen if another price spike like the one in 2008 happened now, in the midst of a recession?

February 2010 | HOME STAR: Putting Americans Back to Work: An Energy Program with Many Benefits

As the nation struggles to recover from one of the worst economic recessions in decades, unemployment has recently shown some marginal improvement, falling below 10 percent in January. But for workers in the construction and construction-related manufacturing sectors, there is little relief as jobless rates remain at near-Depression levels.

HOME STAR, sometimes called “cash for caulkers,” is a proposal that makes sense. It makes economic sense because it can provide a quick employment stimulus putting 168,000 people to work—the overwhelming majority of them in jobs that can’t be outsourced overseas.

February 2010 | 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review

This wide-ranging report lays out rising priorities for keeping the peace and, when needed, waging war. The report — at the request of lawmakers — considered  the significance of climate change for national security, both as a potential source of conflict and a factor in military operations.

The report also describes a longstanding, and now intensifying, focus on cutting the use of fuels, which is a huge cost and a security concern on the battlefield.

January 2010 | Corps: Jobs Today, A lifetime of Employment Tomorrow

Service and Conservation Corps use a “work-first” model that provides paid work experience through service to almost 30,000 young people annually. Corps flexibly meet the needs of communities, no matter what those needs may be.

In Corps, thousands of Corpsmembers serve on public lands, planting trees, building trails, and combating invasive species. Thousands of others retrofit low-income homes, educate residents about energy savings, or go into jobs in healthcare or construction, among a substantial range of real-life service assignments.

January 2010 | Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study

The Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (EWITS) is one of the largest regional wind integration studies to date. It was initiated in 2008 to examine the operational impact of up to 20-30% energy penetration of wind on the power system in the Eastern Interconnect of the United States..

This study was set up to answer questions that utilities, regional transmission operators, and planning organizations had about wind energy and transmission development in the east.

January 2010 | The Economic Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - Second Quarterly Report: January 13, 2010

As part of the unprecedented accountability and transparency provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) was charged with providing to Congress quarterly reports on the effects of the Recovery Act on overall economic activity, and on employment in particular. We provide an assessment of the effects of the Act through the fourth quarter of 2009.

December 2009 | America on the Move: State Leadership in the Fight Against Global Warming and What it Means for the World

A review of dozens of individual state policies, federal policies based on state models, and new federal policies in which states will have key roles in implementation suggests that state actions will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 536 million metric tons by 2020.

That is more global warming pollution than is currently emitted by all but eight of the world’s nations, and represents approximately 7 percent of U.S. global warming pollution in 2007.

November 2009 | Electrification Roadmap: Revolutioning Transportation and
Achieving Energy Secuirty

In November 2009, the Coalition released its Electrification Roadmap, a sweeping report outlining a vision for the deployment of a fully integrated electric drive network.

The report details the dangers of oil dependence, explains the benefits of electrification, describes the challenges facing electric cars—including battery technology and cost, infrastructure financing, regulatory requirements, electric power sector interface, and consumer acceptance issues—and provides specific and detailed policy proposals to overcome those challenges.

October 2009 | Clean Tech Job Trends 2009

In the following pages we highlight five major trends that we see reshaping the clean-tech jobs landscape. These include how conservation and efficiency are creating tens of thousands of new jobs and leading the clean-tech pack; how utilities facing an aging workforce are turning to a new stable of workers trained in clean tech and the smart grid; and how new educational programs are opening up clean-tech career paths.

We then look at a number of emerging public financing models, such as Victory Bonds and the Green Bank, that could help fuel the next wave of innovation and job growth in clean tech.

October 2009 | Connecting to the Grid Guide: Guide to Distributed Generation Interconnection Issues

The sixth edition of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council's (IREC) Connecting to the Grid Guide provides a comprehensive introduction to a span of topics that relate to grid-tied renewable energy sources. The sixth edition has been revised to include information on IREC's recently updated model procedures, alternative billing arrangements for net metering, energy storage and several other emerging issues in the field. This guide is designed for state regulators and other policymakers, utilities, industry representatives and consumers interested in the development of state-level interconnection and net metering policies.

October 2009 | The New York City Green-Collar Jobs Roadmap

The Green-Collar Jobs Roadmap seeks to fulfill this promise. It is the product of the Green-Collar Jobs Roundtable—a participatory effort of over 170 job-training organizations, community-based programs, businesses, and labor unions committed to creating green-collar jobs in New York City. The roundtable was convened by Urban Agenda and compiled data on green jobs and workforce development best practices while developing more than 30 recommendations for achieving the shared vision of a more sustainable, prosperous, and just New York City.

October 2009 | Recovery through Retrofit

There are almost 130 million homes in this country. Combined, they generate more than 20 percent of our nation's carbon dioxide emissions, making them a significant contributor to global climate change. Existing techniques and technologies in energy efficiency retrofitting can reduce home energy use by up to 40 percent per home and lower associated greenhouse gas emissions by up to 160 million metric tons annually by the year 2020.

By implementing Recovery Through Retrofit’s recommendations, the Federal Government will lay the groundwork for a self-sustaining home energy efficiency retrofit industry. This Report provides a roadmap of how the Federal Government can use existing authorities and funds to unlock private capital and mobilize our communities.

October 2009 | Clean Energy Investments Could Create 1.9 Million Jobs Nationally

Comprehensive clean energy legislation would create up to 1.9 million new jobs, increase yearly household income by up to $1,175 and boost annual GDP by up to $111 billion by 2020, according to new research by the University of Illinois, Yale University and the University of California. Using new modeling and the latest economic data, these findings also show that clean energy legislation would limit pollution and create incentives to drive large-scale investments in clean energy and energy efficiency.

About the study:

The Environmental Assessment in General Equilibrium (EAGLE) model was developed at the University of California in collaboration with the University of Illinois and Yale University . It details patterns of supply, demand, employment, incomes, resource allocation, energy use, and emissions across the nation and within each of the 50 United States . Using a general equilibrium framework, the model captures both direct impacts and the extensive economy-wide indirect effects of climate and energy policies. The EAGLE model has been peer reviewed and technical documentation is available on request.

October 2009 | ASES / MISI study reveals opportunities, warnings in nation’s first update of groundbreaking study; hottest sectors: solar, wind, biofuels, fuel cells

The renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE&EE) industries represented more than 9 million jobs and $1,045 billion in U.S. revenue in 2007, according to a new report offering the most detailed analysis yet of the green economy. The renewable energy industry grew three times as fast as the U.S. economy, with the solar thermal, photovoltaic, biodiesel, and ethanol sectors leading the way, each with 25%+ annual revenue growth.

September 2009 | Seizing the Energy Opportunity

Over the coming years, America’s poorest families will face an additional burden— they will bear the brunt of hardship caused by climate change in the United States. If policymakers fail to take adequate action, this “climate gap,” as researchers have referred
to it, will further erode the well-being of the worst off.

Poor, often minority, families will suffer from increased health problems and even death from pollution-related illness, extreme heat, and severe weather phenomena. They are also likely to face additional financial difficulty from estimated increases in the prices of food, water, and electricity under a business-as-usual climate scenario.

September 2009 | Equitable Development: Untangling the Web of Urban Development through Collaborative Problem Solving

Social responsibility versus economic imperative is a false choice. In a like manner, the objectives of smart growth and meeting the needs of underserved communities are not mutually exclusive.

Both can be addressed through equitable development. This paper offers perspectives on smart growth and equitable development. The research has not been prepared to diminish smart growth as an approach. Through this paper, the author wishes to encourage a discussion for how to improve smart growth outcomes for all Americans.

September 2009 | CBO: The Economic Effects of Legislation to Reduce Greenhouse-Gas Emissions

A strong consensus has developed in the expert community that, if allowed to continue unabated, the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will have extensive, highly uncertain, but potentially serious and costly impacts on regional climates throughout the world.

September 2009 | The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Climate Science Report

The purpose of this report is to synthesize the most policy-relevant climate science published since the close-off of material for the last IPCC report. The rationale is two-fold.

First, this report serves as an interim evaluation of the evolving science midway through an IPCC cycle - IPCC AR5 is not due for completion until 2013.

The report has been purposefully written with a target readership of policy-makers, stakeholders, the media and the broader public. Each section begins with a set of key points that summarises the main findings. The science contained in the report is based on the most credible and significant peer-reviewed literature available at the time of publication. The authors primarily comprise previous IPCC lead authors familiar with the rigor and completeness required for a scientific assessment of this nature.

June 2009 I Green Prosperity: How Clean Energy Can Fight Poverty and Raise Living Standards in the United States

The project of building a clean-energy economy will become a powerful engine of expanding employment opportunities throughout the U.S. economy. Accord-ing to a study that PERI recently completed with the Center for American Progress (CAP),1 clean-energy investments at the level of about $150 billion per year—i.e. around one percent of U.S. GDP—can generate about 1.7 million net new jobs throughout the U.S. economy.

This paper examines these broader economic considerations—jobs, incomes, and economic growth—through the lens of two government initiatives this year by the Obama administration and Congress. The first is the set of clean-energy provisions incorporated within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, initiated by the Obama administration and passed into law by Congress in February. The second is the proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), which is now before Congress.

America’s clean energy economy is dawning as a critical component of the nation’s future. Research by The Pew Charitable Trusts shows that despite a lack of sustained policy attention and investment, the emerging clean energy economy has grown considerably— extending to all 50 states, engaging a wide variety of workers and generating new
industries.

Building on and linking unions’ and community groups’ existing job training—and the Center for American Progress | Green Jobs/Green Homes New York shaping the expanding retrofit industry with decent wages and benefits—can provide direct economic gain to whole communities (not just owners or occupants of retrofitted housing) by bringing many thousands of much-needed, good-paying jobs and career paths to local residents.

February 2009 I High Road or Low Road: Job Quality in the New Green Economy

There is a signifcant ray of hope amid the current economic gloom: it goes by the name of green jobs. After several years of calls by advocacy groups for major public investments in a clean-energy revolution, the federal government now appears ready to include large sums for projects involving renewable energy, mass transit, energy efficiency and modernization of the nation’s electrical grid in the massive economic recovery and reinvestment plan being devised by Congress.

January 2009 I Green Collar Jobs in the U.S. and Colorado: Drivers for the 21st Century

Since 1954, the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) has led the nation in working toward energy literacy among professionals, decision makers, and the public. Our goal in producing reports such as Green Collar Jobs in the U.S. and Colorado—Economic Drivers for the 21st Century is to provide competent, accurate, scientifically-based data to help policymakers and other energy professionals make sound energy policy decisions.

December 2008 I Clean Energy Corps: Jobs, Service and Equal Opportunity in America's Clean Energy Economy

America as a whole is suffering through a deep economic recession, with job losses and extreme levels of wealth inequality, rising energy prices and energy insecurity, and an increasing scarcity of hope and common purpose. Americans are looking for solutions on climate, energy and the economy. To address these intersecting challenges, we propose a national Clean Energy Corps (CEC).

October 2008 I 5 Million Green Jobs: How we address Climate Change and Strengthen the Economy by putting Americans to Work

1Sky has released a report that promotes a plan to create 5 million new jobs that will help conserve energy, jumpstart the deployment of new technologies, and contribute to the positive spirit of our ever-expanding movement. The green workforce will help lower barriers to entry for investors, and help revitalize communities that need it the most, resulting in a holistic and equitable transition away from the fossil fuel economy.

October 2008 I U.S. Metro Economics: Current and Potential Green Jobs in the U.S. Green Economy

A report released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mayors Climate Protection Center says the U.S. economy currently generates more than 750,000 green jobs — a number that is projected to grow five-fold to more than 4.2 million jobs over the next three decades.

September 2008 I Job and Workforce Development in the Clean Energy Economy

Greener Pathways outlines a plan of action for states, helping policy-makers and advocates craft clean energy agendas that simultaneously meet emerging industry demand, train and support workers, and create good, family-supporting jobs. Produced by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, The Workforce Alliance and Apollo Alliance, Greener Pathways explores high-road economic and workforce development opportunities in three key industries: energy efficiency, wind, and biofuels.

September 2008 I Towards Decent Work in Low-Carbon World

A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme says changing patterns of employment and investment resulting from efforts to reduce climate change are generating new jobs in many sectors and economies and could create millions more in developed and developing countries.

September 2008 I Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Econmy

This report outlines a green economic recovery program to strengthen the U.S. economy over the next two years and leave it in a better position for sustainable prosperity.

July 2008 I African Americans, Global Warming and a Just Climate Policy for the U.S.

The Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative and Redefining Progress have released a new report finding that, while climate change is an urgent problem that hurts everyone, it is especially harmful to African Americans and low-income people of color.

October 2007 I Green Collar Jobs in America's Cities

A guide that addresses the demand for this information and outlines a strategic framework in which local policymakers and advocates can develop a green-collar job initiative that responds to the realities of their local economies and communities. 

October 2007 I DC Green Collar Jobs Initiative

The Center for American Progress is supporting a green-collar jobs initiative in Washington D.C. and developed this piece as guidance and background for policy makers.

June 2007 I Growing Green Collar Jobs: Energy Efficiency

The first in a series of reports prepared by Urban Agenda for New York City Apollo Alliance on green-collar jobs as pathways out of poverty and toward a greener city. This report focuses on improving energy efficiency in existing buildings, "one of the largest, fastest growing, and most promising green sectors for New York City."

June 2007 I An Analysis of the Capacity of Green Businesses to provide High Quality Jobs for Men and Women with Barriers to Employment

This unique study involved extensive interviews with green-collar employers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The report explores the potential for green collar jobs to provide low-income men and women with high-quality, community serving jobs in the fast expanding green sector. The City of Berkeley commissioned the report. Raquel Pinderhughes is a professor of Urban Studies at San Francisco State University.

June 2006 I The Economic Development Potential of the Green Sector

Policy recommendations on establishing a regional green economy to meet the growing demand for green jobs and services. Establishes guidelines in promoting economic development, supporting a region in becoming more environmentally sound, and strengthening economic equity by including disadvantaged populations in the green work force.

We hope that you find our list of reports and research related to the green economy helpful. Do you know of something that should be listed here? Email us at reports@greendmv.org.