How the Climate Bill Creates Jobs

Switching to cleaner energy will employ millions-in the U.S.

Posted: 17-Aug-2009; Updated: 26-Aug-2009

Clean Energy Jobs Across the U.S.

Less Carbon, More Jobs: interactive state maps of clean energy companies poised to create new jobs.

State Fact Sheets: state-by-state numbers on the potential growth for clean energy jobs.

The climate bill before Congress is designed to address the greatest environmental emergency of our time: the threat of catastrophic global warming.

But the bill's benefits go far beyond protecting the environment. Confronting global warming will spark a dramatic transformation in the way we produce and use energy. We'll build cleaner cars, produce more power from clean energy technologies like wind and solar, pursue greater energy efficiency, and unleash technological innovation. Together, these changes will create millions of new jobs.

Here are some examples:

A single wind turbine contains 250 tons of steel and 8,000 parts, from ball bearings and electronic controls to gearboxes. Jobs manufacturing these parts can be created here in America, especially in our manufacturing heartland. (See a video of a steel town mayor making that pitch.) The climate bill will create the new jobs needed to manufacture these turbines, install them, and maintain them. The same will be true for solar energy, geothermal power, and the many other clean energy technologies.
Retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency will also create jobs, and energy efficiency will go a long way to cutting pollution. According to the Energy Department, buildings and the appliances inside them account for almost 40 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in the U.S.¹ Smarter building can save huge amounts of energy. For example, California has reduced energy consumption in new houses and commercial buildings by 75 percent.² Manufacturing and installing energy efficient doors, windows, and insulation will create jobs in glass and hardware manufacturing.

The Empire State Building is now undergoing an energy retrofit, with refurbished triple-glazed windows, upgraded lighting and lighting controls, and upgraded or overhauled furnaces, chillers, and air-handlers. The Empire State Building will save $4.4 million in annual energy savings costs, repaying the retrofit cost in about three years. And, of course, the retrofit is a small engine of job creation both in New York and in the states whose factories make this energy efficient technology.

Businesses are ready to create these jobs right here in the U.S. Last February, Environmental Defense Fund launched an interactive online tool to track the many companies and small businesses that will benefit from a bill to limit carbon emissions. Today that web site, LessCarbonMoreJobs.org, tracks and profiles more than 1,500 companies in 20 states around the country. They range from Lucid Technologies, a small manufacturer of wind turbines in Goshen, Indiana, to Owens Corning, manufacturer of glass products and fiberglass insulation. Every state in the nation will benefit from the economic boom that the climate bill will spark.

It's time to start on the clean energy infrastructure that will promote innovation and stabilize our climate. In the process, we also have the opportunity to create millions of new jobs.