Navigant: Green Jobs Need Nat. Renew. Elec. Standard

By: Margaret Ryan, Published: 02/04/10 2:03pm

A study released today shows a national Renewable Electricity Standard of 25 percent by 2025 would create 274,000 more jobs in the U.S. renewables industry. And without a national RES, fledgling industries like wind will fail to grow as short term tax benefits expire.

The study by Navigant, done for the RES Alliance for Jobs, says business needs long-term market prospects to invest in manufacturing and related facilities. The researchers say the current system of production and investment tax credits, some of which last only a year or two, can't provide that certainty.

Navigant modeled the results of adopting the Alliance's 25 percent RES for 2025. Currently, 28 states and the District of Columbia have some kind of RES. The House-passed climate bill would require 20 percent renewables by 2020 and the Senate Energy committee bill calls for 15 percent by 2021. But both allow substantial use of efficiency to meet the standard. The Navigant study says a 25 percent RES is needed to convince industry to invest for the long term and to gain jobs across the country.

Navigant pointed particularly to the Southeastern U.S., where utilities and officials say their major source of non-emitting electricity is nuclear. RES backers don't want nuclear counted, and utilities say massive use of biomass, mainly wood, would be their only alternative, since they lack good wind and solar resources. Navigant says waste-to-energy and hydro resources could be tapped as well, and a 25 percent RES would bring "significant job gains" to the Southeast.

But Navigant's study predicts job gains across the country as an RES provides renewables businesses with certainty.

The study gives no estimate of the added costs for electricity from the RES.