Green Jobs

Europe’s wind energy industry contributed an additional 33%– 32 billion euros (~$41.6 billion) to EU GDP between 2007 and 2010, growing at double the rate of the EU economy as a whole in 2010, the European Wind Energy announced on the opening day of EWEA 2012 in Copenhagen. The EWEA’s forecasting greater gains ahead, if the EU continues its renewable energy and carbon emissions reduction drives.

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A former ad-exec in North Carolina, Nancy Welsh wants to stop the tear-down epidemic and use the resource of America’s boarded up homes to help solve the housing crisis. Her group Builders of Hope has repeated the recipe in several US cities.

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Despite the best wishes of those ideologically opposed, either for political reasons, or through ties to declining fossil fuel sector, or both, the green jobs economy has been performing robustly. In fact, according to a survey recently conducted by LinkedIn, it is outperforming every other sector.

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Sen. John Bingaman and supporters are once again introducing federal legislation that would require power utilities to generate electricity from clean energy sources. Though the Clean Energy Standard Act of 2012 is once again likely to be shot down in Congress, the push for a long overdue overhaul of federal energy policy focused on clean energy looks certain to be a “hot button” issue right through the November elections.

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As far as clean energy and green jobs go, President Obama’s 2013 budget includes a Christmas-in-July package of initiatives that are designed to help pull the U.S. out of recession while transitioning the economy to cleaner, safer, more reliable and less price-spikey forms of energy.

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The solar power company Solar Reserve has just announced a major construction milestone for its billion-dollar Crescent Dunes solar thermal project in Nevada, with the completion of the plant’s signature 540-foot central tower. That puts Crescent Dunes on track to begin operating in less than two years, following what has been a decades-long program of [...]

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By Ryan Matley, Rocky Mountain Institute President Obama’s call in his State of the Union address to capitalize on “the strongest two-year period of manufacturing growth since the 1990s” by encouraging businesses to bring work back to the United States can be accelerated with energy efficiency innovation. While Obama urged Congress to take a series [...]

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Chinese exports of silicon solar panels surged in 2011, and they’re spiking higher yet following the filing of illegal dumping and subsidy petitions in the US, according to a study of US Customs and Border Protection Service data by CASM, which filed petitions with the US International Trade Commission and Commerce Dept. The brewing trade dispute is significant enough to have prompted Pres. Obama to announced the formation of a new Trade Enforcement Unit in his SOTU address Tuesday night.

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Increasing labor productivity is generally hailed as a positive outcome of technological innovation.  The production of more goods and services with fewer hours worked allows for both higher standards of living and decreased inflationary pressure, since wage increases can result from increased productivity and are not translated into higher costs for goods and services.

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A growing host of India’s business conglomerates is leveraging the Indian government’s national solar energy program and investing in the sector, that latest being the Bhanshali group’s Talma Chemical Industries. Talma’s Visual Percept Solar Projects intends to invest in building 100-MW of solar energy generation capacity.

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Renewable energy is getting off to a good 2012 start in California with the approval of 5 renewable energy projects that will bring more than 1-GW of clean electrical power and more than 2,900-GWh per year of clean energy on-line. California’s Public Utilities Commission approved investor-owned utility contracts for three SunPower solar, one NextEra Energy wind and one Pattern Energy wind energy project with Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric.

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By Jacquie Ottman & Mark Eisen Our economy is slowly but surely heeding the signal that carbon is the new watchword. During the past few years, a steady stream of so-called “biobased” products have been making their way to retail shelves — compostable dinnerware made from corn, plant-based laundry detergents, and bamboo flooring among them. [...]

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Wind power is growing quickly in some midwestern states and a company called Clean Line Energy is moving just as fast to take advantage of the excess capacity in this rapidly expanding energy sector. Last week, Clean Line won approval for its Grain Belt Express Clean Line, LLC affiliate to operate as a utility. That [...]

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The list of President Obama’s We Can’t Wait initiatives now includes a major new investment program for upgrading the energy efficiency of buildings. Announced last week, the program consists of $4 billion worth of public and private funding that will create thousands of new green jobs related to retrofitting office buildings, industrial plants, government facilities, [...]

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The Northeast’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will yield an economic gain of $1.6 billion, create 16,000 jobs and save consumers across its ten participating member states some $1.1 billion in electricity, heating and cooling bills over the next ten years as a result of its first three years in operation, according to an economic consulting firm’s report.

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LA’s solar power and green jobs potential remains largely untapped, due in large part to lack of action by local government, according to a UCLA-USC study presented at the Los Angeles Business Council Institute on Tuesday. The report’s authors found that the city and region lags the rest of the state when it comes to solar power and green jobs. Enacting a solar power feed-in tariff, they add, could create $2 billion in local investment and create 16,000 job-years with a minimal impact on ratepayers.

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Through Community Solar programs—which overcome the high upfront costs of going solar and the complexities of solar subsidy programs—we can jumpstart the solar economy, saving households billions of dollars and creating new jobs, while bringing these benefits to the country’s poorest neighborhoods.

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If it seems like biofuel for airplanes is all the rage this week, you’re right. On Monday, United Airlines became America’s first commercial airline to use an algae based biofuel, and today Alaska Air Group will become the first to fly on a synthetic jet fuel derived from recycled cooking oil, with 75 flights scheduled [...]

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Smart grids are billed as the hub of a smarter, more sustainable and democratized electricity distribution system, a core element of making a transition from fossil fuel to cleaner, renewable energy sources. Investing in smart grids is also touted as an engine for creating relatively well-paying, clean tech jobs. A study released yesterday by the Silicon Valley Smart Grid Task Force found that these claims aren’t unfounded.

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Green jobs, or environmentally-friendly forms of employment, are one of the most rapidly growing sectors of our job economy. Many people who are looking for a career change, or are looking to enter the workforce, are finding that the best paying jobs are those in the green or efficiency sector.

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The solar energy industry is churning out new green jobs at a steady clip, according to a new report commissioned by The Solar Foundation, a nonprofit trade group. That’s a pretty astounding piece of news considering the overall state of job creation in this economy, and The Solar Foundation has been quick to take advantage [...]

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Recent riots at a solar panel factory in China should be seen as a dire reminder to the international business community and political caste that sustainability is a three-legged stool that grows very unstable when the social leg is ignored.

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Industries are looking for ways they can literally clean up their reputations, becoming more green. New sectors of the economy, dedicated to going green and furthering and environmentally friendly lifestyle are some of the fastest growing sectors in the economy.

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Community members, local leaders, solar power industry participants, state government officials and members of Congress gathered in Mount Airy, North Carolina Oct. 10 to dedicate next week’s commissioning of the Mayberry Solar Farm, the first of its kind in Surry County. The solar power farm project offers a prime example of how, with effective support and incentives, public-private sector partnerships collaborating on renewable energy projects can succeed in generating jobs and helping local businesses, as well as building community and improving the health and quality of the local environment.

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Buy Local is an emerging American mega-trend driven by consumers discovering how their purchasing power can create local jobs and community solutions. The farmer’s market is the tip of the spear of the Buy Local movement. The USDA reports that the number of farmer markets has exploded from less than 2,000 in 1994 to over [...]

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Some people passionately argue that going green has nothing to do with large-scale job creation and in fact destroys jobs in the fossil fuel industry that can’t be replaced. Well, there’s a new report from Green For All that debunks that notion. It says that upgrading water and wastewater infrastructure would create nearly 1.9 million [...]

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National Solar Power will invest $1.5 billion to build the Southeast’s largest solar power farm, a 400MW solar power farm in Florida’s Gadsden County capable of supplying clean, renewable power to some 32,000 homes. Around 400 construction phase and 120 permanent jobs are expected to be created.

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This article outlines the 3 stages of recycling and argues for a closed-loop recycling system that protects the environment and promotes a greener economy.

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All unhappy people are alike in that they negatively affect a business’ financial bottom line. Several years ago, Gallup estimated that Americans who are actively disengaged with their work – almost 30% of all employees – are responsible for a staggering $300 billion in lost productivity annually. This is in addition to what they receive [...]

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By Richard J. Crespin Last week, President Obama laid out a modest plan to nudge job growth. I don’t fault his modesty.  Given the government’s finances, he can’t do much.  Real, lasting growth has to come from the private sector. “What makes the current situation so hard is that we’re trying to solve a long-term [...]

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