Job Creation in Renewable Energy

Based on its title, I have to say that my initial impression of the article linked below wasn’t too favorable.  Calling something “The Truth About Solar Energy,” or “The Truth About ….(anything)” is a bit off-putting.  Yes, I’d rather have the truth, as opposed to the lies, any day of the week; I think that goes without saying.

But the more I got into this, the more value I found it had to provide.  For instance, there is a discussion of PERI’s (the Political Economics Research Institute) oft-quoted infographic on the number of jobs that would be created with an incremental $1 million investment into each of a dozen different types of energy generation, conservation, and efficiency.  One of PERI’s key people, Dr. Robert Pollin, was good enough to favor me with an interview for “Is Renewable Really Doable?” and he spoke at some length about this subject. 

I wish this subject would come up more in our usual political discourse; frankly it’s a bit strange that it doesn’t.  After all, we just had a presidential election that was all about jobs, and the subject is at least as hot now as it was then.  Romney attacked Obama for not being sufficiently friendly to the coal industry, and he nearly convinced enough voters that renewable energy was a job killer.  This, of course, is ironic, as precisely the opposite is true, as readers will see. 

I have to say that I laughed out loud at one of the comments: “I suspect those low numbers for job creation in coal don’t count all the awesome jobs in the health-industry for cancer care, lung and heart diseases, etc.”  Now there’s someone with a sense of humor.