A Weak 20% National RPS Law Will Halt The Creation Of 3.7 Million Potential Construction Jobs*
A weak Renewable Portfolio Standard -- with loopholes -- in the Waxman-Markey bill means that large scale renewable energy projects – the keys to energy independence – will not grow. The Waxman-Markey bill – as currently drafted -- requires public utilities in effect to achieve 20% of their sales by 2020 from a combination of renewable and energy efficiency, but the bill allows the RPS to be reduced to 12% with 8% accounting for “efficiency” programs. This reduced impact is a job-killing loophole. The policy choice is a robust 20% RPS or a weak 20% RPS with loopholes. (*President Obama’s Proposal is 25% by 2025.)
The Job-Killing Loopholes are:
• Existing hydro, new nuclear plants, and carbon sequestration (aka “clean coal”) are subtracted from the utilities’ baseline sales calculation.
• Energy efficiency – NOT RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARDS -- can count for up to 8%, if utilities petition state governors for exemptions.
• The RPS standard may be lowered to just 12% of adjusted baseline electricity sales.
How Do These Loopholes Kill Jobs?
A 12% RPS with loopholes will kill growth in high-wage heavy construction jobs for solar and wind energy plants. According to The Union of Concerned Scientists, under a 12% RPS with loopholes scenario, renewables would only amount to 7.3% of total sales by 2030. This amounts to a decline in renewables below the “business as usual” scenario which estimates only 11% renewable electricity sales by 2030!
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Over 3.7 Million Jobs Could Be Killed.
A robust 20% RPS without loopholes would allow the United States build a renewable energy future, based on wind and solar, that would create at least 3,740,000 heavy construction jobs between now and 2020 – even if there is no energy growth.
A 20% RPS without loopholes would add 170 gigawatts of wind and solar renewable energy by 2020. Building each gigawatt of renewable wind and solar energy creates between 22,000 and 37,000 job years in high wage heavy construction, and creates between 1,000 and 1,400 permanent jobs in operations and maintenance.
A 20% RPS without loopholes would create six to eight times more permanent jobs over those in existing coal plants.
Legacy coal plants could be gradually retired at no net job loss. For every gigawatt of coal plants retired, 177 operations and maintenance jobs could be converted to between 1,000 and 1,400 new operations and maintenance jobs at each gigawatt of wind and solar energy plants.
Background Confirming Data:
In 2007, the net summer electricity generation capacity in the United States was approximately 1000 Gigawatts.
Of this figure, approximately 11% is “renewable “if hydro-electric generation is included. If hydro-electric is excluded, less than 3% of the electricity generated comes from renewable sources.
With growing demand (1% per year), the U.S. will have to add 259 gigawatts of new generating capacity by 2030. The Energy information Agency has projected that 22% of these new additions will be renewable, while natural gas will account for 53%, coal for 18% and nuclear for 5%.