Historically, jobs have been more or less put into 1 of two categories. White collar, meaning an office environment, and Blue collar, meaning manual labor. Now a third sector is beginning to emerge: Green Collar Jobs.
Green Collar jobs are split into two categories, Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE). Up until lately, nobody can accurately illustrate the size or reach of either of these categories because up until lately, there hasn’t been a comprehensive study of these industries. However while there isn’t a precise definition of the industry, the growth can’t be denied.
Here are the 2006 QuickFacts:
New jobs generated - 8.5 Million
Revenue Generated - $970 Billion
Industry Profits - $100 Billion
Fed, State, Local tax revenue - $150 Billion.
As a comparison, in 2006, Wal-Mart, Exxon-Mobil and General Motors had combined sales of $905 billion.
(QuickFact - Renewable energy makes up only 6% of total energy used by the U.S. Petroleum makes up 40%. The 6% of renewable energy is broken down as: Solar - 1%, Biomas - 47%, Geothermal - 5%, HydroElectric - 45%, Wind - 2%)
The RE (Renewable Energy) sector is being defined as companies directly involved in renewable energy production. This sector is made up of the companies and their employees in the fields of Solar, biomass generators, wind and hydro. More than 90% of these jobs were in private industry.
The EE (energy Efficiency) sector is a little harder to define. This industry is partial segments of larger industries such as vehicles, buldings, lighting, etc.
There is a catch to all this growth. This growth won’t happen without federal and state RE & EE initiatives. These do not have to be very aggressive changes to create an environment that will foster the predicted growth, but the changes do need to occur.
At this time there are a few other reports that are available that provide even larger gains for jobs and revenues if just a little effort is applied in the EE/RE industries. One report concludes that the renewable energy sector generates more jobs than the fossil fuel based energy sector per unit of energy delivered. Another report estimates that a $30 billion per year for 10 years in RE & EE would add more than 3.3 million jobs to the econmy, stimulate 1.4 trillion in new GDP, stimulate the economy my adding $953 billion in personal income and $323.9 billion in retail sales, while saving $284 billion in energy costs. This report also found that by creating jobs and stimulating growth that the investment would pay for itself in about a decade.
How much is that never ending war in Iraq costing us again? And its helping us…how?
Attatched is the full ases job report. Download it and read for yourself.
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