Green Jobs and a New Energy/Economic Paradigm

Over the past few months discussion of "green collar jobs" has finally entered the mainstream. Organizations like the Apollo Alliance have been promoting the concept for years and have been successful among the progressive activist crowd, but never got the attention their ideas are now receiving. Along with its new found popularity, green jobs movement has also, inevitably, seen a good amount of derision as a over-hyped benefit of transition to a renewable energy economy. Although certainly not a panacea for domestic economic problems, renewable energy (and the transition to a more local and green economy that comes with it) will no doubt bring some large, and on balance good, changes. 

I don't think the macroeconomic picture gets enough attention in this debate. Currently the US imports one-third of all its energy (and nearly 75% of its oil), by far the largest energy quantity importer (in addition to consumer) in the world. No matter if it is in the form of oil, natural gas, uranium or coal, importing our energy is a lost economic opportunity for the United States, American workers, and our trade imbalance.

The problem, as I see it, is that the framing of the green jobs is almost always in accompanied with a picture guys in hard hats installing solar panels (ironically recreated in this post). While this is accurate (and no doubt a powerful image), it is far from the whole picture. What we are talking about is the wholesale reinvention of the American energy sector as completely domestic. Incorporating what are currently energy imports into the domestic economy would be a huge, perhaps unprecedented, boost to the American economy, not to mention, national security. In addition to the new jobs that by definition are local (infrastructure installation and maintenance), we are also talking about stimulating community reinvestment and keeping capital that previously left the country in the United States. As we are already seeing in some places, this will have a positive job effects on sunny and windswept areas of the Southwest, Great Plains and Midwest but will have macro-economic effects on the whole country. The economic benefits of renewable energy are far beyond just green collar jobs directly related to energy on a local level. This is the localization (back to the United States rather than in the Middle East) of our national energy policy.

Maybe I am off-base about the messaging of green collar jobs. I am far from an expert. Maybe this sort of frame is already being used with certain audiences I do think that it is important to be able to frame the message differently for different audiences and the macro-economic frame is a very important one. I will be attending "How to grow green collar jobs" with Kate Gordon of Apollo Alliance at SPUR tomorrow. I may have more to report afterward.