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 Arkansas.Clean energy already provides many thousands of Arkansas workers with good jobs during hard times. This fact sheet collects several sources of information showing how accelerating the clean-energy transition will benefit Arkansas's economy – and, conversely, the costs and consequences of failing to act.
This map1 tells the story of existing companies across Arkansas that will get new customers and create jobs with a cap on carbon.2
The Clean Energy Economy [PDF]
The clean energy industry in Arkansas is booming (job growth of 7.8%), much faster than the rest of the economy. By 2007, 448 businesses had generated nearly 4,600 Arkansas jobs [PDF] in the clean energy economy, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. Venture capitalists are investing $22.8 million in Arkansas’s clean energy businesses. 3
| Clean Businesses (2007) | Clean Jobs (2007) | Clean Job Growth (1998-2007) |
Overall Job Growth (1998-2007) |
Venture Capital (2006-2008) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | 448 | 4,597 | 7.8% | 3.5% | $22,845,000 |
The Future of the Clean Energy Economy [PDF]
University of Massachusetts researchers conclude that the American Clean Energy and Security Act, coupled with the clean energy provisions passed in the ARRA stimulus package that Congress passed in February 2009, will drive $150 billion of investment in clean energy nationwide. This investment will create more than 17,700 jobs for Arkansas' workers. 4
Both the Department of Energy and McKinsey and Company have identified significant, untapped opportunities for key industries in Arkansas to prosper under a clean energy economy.
According to a June 2009 report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, inaction on global warming will cause significant harm to the Southeast. Temperatures and summer droughts will increase, inducing heat-related stress for crops and livestock and buckling pavement and railways.10
The impacts on Arkansas' economy will be significant. Arkansas farmers—who produce $4 billion [PDF] for the state—will lose ground to rising temperatures and parched soil.11 The Arkansas Governor's Commission on Global Warming expects flood damages to increase [PDF].12 And the National Wildlife Federation shows how global warming will threaten the 25,000 jobs [PDF] provided by Arkansas's $1.2 billion hunting, wildlife-watching, and angling industries.13
A nationwide cap on greenhouse gas emissions would jumpstart a new energy economy in NNN 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.
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