SOLAR TODAY - January/February 2010

advances continued from page 17.

Tackling Climate Change Creates Jobs
New energy programs may create 4. 5 million new jobs by 2030.

In a pair of launch events on Oct. 22 in Washington, D.C., the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) released its new report “Estimating the Jobs Impacts of Tackling Climate Change.”

The day began with a press conference for national media. Later in the day, more than 150 congressional staffers and advocates from the environmental and renewable energy communities attended a briefing hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

According to the report, compiled by economist Roger Bezdek of Management Information Services Inc. in Washington, aggressive deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency can net up to 4. 5 million new U.S. jobs by 2030 and provide the greenhouse gas emission reductions necessary to tackle climate change.

EESI

Brad Collins (left), executive director of ASES, and Roger Bezdek, the economist behind ASES’ latest jobs report, explain the report’s findings at a briefing Oct. 22 in Washington.

Bezdek found that renewable energy and energy-efficiency deployment costs would be revenue neutral (or better), as costs to imple-

ment the technologies are offset by savings from lower energy bills.

“The twin challenges of climate change and economic stagnation can be solved by the same action — broad, aggressive, sustained deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency,” said Brad Collins, executive director of ASES. “The solution for one is the solution for the other.”