Clean Energy Jobs in Florida

Clean Energy Jobs | Opportunities for Industry and Business | Costs of Inaction

Less Carbon, More Jobs: This map locates some of the hundreds of clean energy businesses in Florida.

Clean energy already provides thousands of Florida workers with good jobs during hard times. This fact sheet collects several sources of information showing how accelerating the clean-energy transition will benefit Florida's economy — and, conversely, the costs and consequences of failing to act.

Clean Energy Jobs

Less Carbon, More Jobs

This map¹ tells the story of existing companies across Florida that will get new customers and create jobs with a cap on carbon.²

The Clean Energy Economy [PDF]

The clean energy industry in Florida is booming (job growth of 7.9%). By 2007, 3,831 businesses had generated more than 31,122 Florida jobs [PDF] in the clean energy economy, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. Venture capitalists are investing $117 million in Florida's clean energy businesses.³

	Clean Businesses (2007)	Clean Jobs (2007)	Clean Job Growth (1998-2007)	Venture Capital (2006-2008)
Florida	3,831	31,122	7.9%	$116,980,000

Opportunities for Industry and Business

Both the Department of Energy and McKinsey and Company have identified significant, untapped opportunities for key industries in Florida to prosper under a clean energy economy.

Metal manufacturing [PDF] companies can save $17.5 million.⁴
The chemical sector [PDF]⁵ and the cement industry [PDF]⁶ can save money by capturing waste heat, swapping out inefficient motors, and incorporating greater use of fly-ash in cement.
The Department of Energy has identified 4,481 ways for small- and medium-sized industrial plants in Florida to earn savings from efficiency, with an average payback of only 1.4 years. Only 41% of these opportunities have been implemented.
Additional information on Florida clean energy jobs is available from the National Wildlife Federation.⁷

Costs of Inaction

According to a June 2009 report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, inaction on global warming will cause significant harm to Florida.⁸ Tufts University has concluded that these effects have heavy economic consequences for Florida.⁹

Sea level rise [PDF] will inundate 99.6% of Monroe County, 70% of Miami-Dade County, and 10 to 22% of 14 other counties. This will flood residential real estate worth over $130 billion [PDF].
Florida's tourism industry will lose $9 billion by 2025 and $167 billion [PDF] by the end of the century.
Sea level rise will destroy key parts of Florida's infrastructure [PDF], including two nuclear power plants, three prisons, 68 hospitals, 74 airports, 334 public schools, and nearly 20,000 historic structures.
The increase in hurricane intensity will inflict $25 billion of damages [PDF] annually by 2050.
As temperature rises, the increased demand for electricity will have to be met with costs of $5 billion annually [PDF] by 2050. Transmission lines will also operate less efficiently, costing an extra $3 billion per year by the end of the century.
Impacts on just three sectors – tourism, electric utilities, and real estate – together with effects of hurricanes would shrink Florida's Gross State Product by 5% [PDF] ($345 billion) by the end of this century.

The Union of Concerned Scientists finds that global warming will hurt the health of Florida's citizens [PDF], as well as its transportation infrastructure.¹⁰ And the National Wildlife Federation shows how global warming will damage Florida's hunting and angling industries [PDF].¹¹

Start the Clean Energy Economy Now

A nationwide cap on greenhouse gas emissions would jumpstart a new energy economy in Florida and accelerate the growth of good-paying, clean jobs. If we fail to act soon, the new markets for clean energy will grow overseas instead.

Florida can't afford to miss out on one of the largest new economic revolutions.
www.edf.org/CleanEnergyJobs

Less Carbon, More Jobs: Mapping the Green Economy: Florida. Environmental Defense Fund. http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=34065&state=fl
Less Carbon, More Jobs: Why a Cap on Carbon? Environmental Defense Fund. http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=36571
Susan Urahn, Joshua Reichert, et. al.: The Clean Energy Economy: Executive Summary. June 2009. The Pew Charitable Trusts. p. 8. http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Clean_Economy_Report_Web.pdf
Environmental Defense Fund: Mitigating industry costs and improving competitiveness with a carbon cap: Profile on Metal Manufacturing. Citing the Department of Energy c/o Oak Ridge National Lab: Save Energy Now Program. 2009. http://www.edf.org/documents/9780_Mitigating-industry-costs-Metal-Manufacturing-Florida.pdf
Environmental Defense Fund: Mitigating industry costs and improving competitiveness with a carbon cap: Profile on Chemicals. Citing McKinsey and Company: Global GHG Abatement Cost Curve for the Chemicals Sector, Version 2.0, Societal Perspective, 2030 Timeframe. 2009. http://www.edf.org/documents/9792_Mitigating-industry-costs-Chemicals-Florida.pdf
Environmental Defense Fund: Mitigating industry costs and improving competitiveness with a carbon cap: Profile on Cement. Citing McKinsey and Company: Global GHG Abatement Cost Curve for the Cement Sector, Version 2.0, Societal Perspective, 2030 Timeframe. 2009. http://www.edf.org/documents/9800_Mitigating-industry-costs-Cement-Florida.pdf
National Wildlife Federation: "Charting a New Path for Florida's Electricity Generation and Use." http://www.nwf.org/globalwarming/statefactsheets.cfm
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States. Report by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. http://www.globalchange.gov/us-impacts
Tufts University's Global Development and Environment Institute: Florida and Climate Change: The Costs of Inaction. 2007. http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/Florida_lr.pdf
Union of Concerned Scientists: Confronting Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region: Impacts on Florida Communities and Ecosystems. 2003. http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/acfweqhoh.pdf
National Wildlife Federation: Global Warming and Florida. 2009. http://www.nwf.org/globalwarming/pdfs/Florida.pdf