There’s a lot of political talk about this topic. The MAGA GOPs seem to think clean energy takes away jobs, but the facts don’t support that. Clearly, there often has to be some retraining, which must be built into the various programs so that existing workers are not left behind and solely replaced by younger pre-trained workers. One place for this to happen is in community colleges, which are often located in generally under-served areas. Clean energy is obviously a necessity for lowering the impact of climate change. For it to boost job rates too, is a wining policy, which has been happening, fortunately, during the past 4 years.
The U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER) was first published in 2016, based on an initiative under the Obama-Biden Administration and is completed annually. The mission of EERE includes “….and ensure [that] the clean energy economy benefits all Americans, creating good paying jobs for the American people—especially workers and communities impacted by the energy transition and those historically underserved by the energy system and overburdened by pollution.” Note the inclusion on creating jobs and for whom. That appears to be actually happening.
Granted, the USEER is a Department of Energy (DOE) Report, so just to make sure this wasn’t “sugar-coating,” I confirmed some of the findings with non-governmental organizations, who collect similar data. I did not include them as sources, but one example is E2, which “is a national, nonpartisan group of business leaders, investors, and professionals from every sector of the economy who advocate for smart policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment. E2’s more than 10,000 members and supporters work and do business in every state in the country, coming from diverse business backgrounds ranging from clean energy and clean tech to real estate and finance and beyond.” Their members include some of the people creating these jobs that then become statistics in the USEER.
Read on for some of the key findings from the 2023 report.
- The number of U.S. energy sector jobs grew 3.8% from 2021 to 2022, and clean energy jobs grew 3.9%, outpacing overall U.S. employment, which increased 3.1% in the same time period.
- The number of jobs in battery electric vehicles increased by 28,366 (+27%) from 2021 to 2022, which was the fastest growth of any energy technology. The growth in battery electric vehicles was almost 17 times faster than the increase in gasoline and diesel vehicle employment.
- Clean vehicles accounted for 59% of all net new jobs in motor vehicles.
- The number of women working in energy increased by 149,732 (+7.8%), meaning that over half of the net jobs added in 2022 were held by women.
- Union employers reported lower difficulty finding workers than non-union employers in 2022; 48% of non-union firms reported that it was “very difficult” to find workers, while only 29% of unionized firms reported this difficulty.[Elsewhere it’s noted that union workers were more skilled than nonunion workers with those additional benefits of having a skilled worker from time of hiring.]
Source: www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/2023%20USEER%20EXEC%20SUMM-v2.pdf
The report has an amazing and rocky history. “When the Trump Administration ignored a Congressional mandate and declined to continue data collection and production of the USEER, the Energy Futures Initiative and the National Association of State Energy Officials, which represents the 56 governor-designated State and Territory energy officials, teamed up to raise funds privately for the 2018 report [and the future reports]. This guaranteed that the report would continue to serve as an important and consistent tool for policymakers at the state and federal level, trade associations, labor unions, and other key stakeholders.”
Imagine! The state and territory energy officials in association with a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization thought this report so important they raised the money to continue it when Trump dumped it.
They used the same research methodologies for continuity, which they published on a separate website: www.usenergyjobs.org. “As of 2022, these EFI/NASEO editions of the USEER are also housed on www.energyfuturesinitiative.org.” https://efifoundation.org/partnerships/useer/#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20the%20USEER%E2%80%94still,impact%20on%20the%20energy%20sector.
Not surprisingly, the USEER was brought back under DOE in the Biden-Harris Administration and continues as an important tool for ll the stakeholders.
FYI: The EFI Foundation “is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public on issues relating to harnessing the power of technology and policy innovation to accelerate the clean energy transition.” https://efifoundation.org/about-us/