The Battle Over ‘Clean Energy’ Estimates

by Aman Azhar (The Real News) With 17% of US energy jobs gone in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent industry report suggests that over half a million ‘clean energy’ workers are unemployed despite nationwide efforts to jumpstart the economy.

Released by BW Research in partnership with E2 and E4TheFuture, the research maps out the economic impact of the novel coronavirus on clean energy industries and recommends that congress incentivize job creation through “federal stimulus investments in three major sectors of the clean energy economy: Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Grid Modernization.”

According to estimates, nearly 3.4 million American workers are employed across the clean energy sector, which includes energy efficiency, renewables, clean vehicles and fuels, and other clean energy sectors. It was not immediately clear whether the analysis counted biomass and biofuels—considered dirtier than coal—as clean energy.

Talking to The Real News, BW Research Vice President Philip Jordan clarified that their analysis includes biomass and bioenergy (such as corn ethanol) in the clean energy category. He also counted solar, wind, geothermal, smart grids, hydrogen fuel cells, and Energy Star appliances as part of the ‘clean energy industry’ described in the research.

When asked about the size of the biofuel industry compared to other clean energy categories, Jordan estimated around 160,000 nationwide jobs.

Asked what sort of congressional actions were favored by the analysis, Jordan mentioned energy efficiency, weatherization, and retrofitting buildings such as schools; state-funded programs to cover the cost of installation measures, smart grids and smart metering for better load management; and electric vehicle charging upgrades.

But some advocacy groups are concerned that the biofuel industry—which uses non-fossil fuel biological materials from sources such as forestry industries, algae, crops, and landfills—will be given a free ride in the name of clean energy. Legislation such as HR 2, and in this case the GREEN Act bill within it, supports incentives for biofuel.

Many groups supportive of HR 2 expressed concern over the inclusion of biomass within the legislation. The groups wrote in a letter to congressional members that they “continue to have concerns about support for energy sources, including the burning of biomass or municipal solid waste, that have a detrimental effect on our climate and public health.” Climate scientists have expressed grave concerns about biomass’ categorization as “carbon neutral,” a definition the Trump administration also supports. READ MORE