During a recent California Energy Commission proceeding on the state’s clean energy goals, it was recommended that job creation be included as a metric for measuring the success of our clean energy program. This metric can only be meaningful if we count both job creation and job loss associated with clean energy policies. Therefore, our job-creation goal, and the metric to measure it, should only count net new jobs.
This prompted us to look at the Brookings Institution’s recently released report on green jobs, Sizing the Clean Economy. Brookings’ research concludes that California leads the country in “green”-sector employment, boasting 332,000 jobs. What Brookings does not do is take a critical look at the number of jobs lost due to our clean energy policies, i.e. higher energy costs, increased environmental permitting fees and loss of predictability for future costs.
To put the numbers in perspective, 332,000 green jobs account for only 2 percent of California’s workforce, about one job for every 115 residents. Further, it doesn’t nearly make up for the state’s overall high-wage job loss over the past 10 years.
Green job definitions vary widely, depending on who sets the criteria. For instance, the Brookings report maintains that public mass-transit operators are in fact “green.” Even with the broadest definitions, the green economy on its own will not catapult California into its next great economic boom. The emerging green sector is an important part of California’s overall economy, but will only grow and succeed if the state’s investment climate is competitive with other states and nations.
California can’t count on large-scale job growth without a predictable and competitive environment for a diverse range of investors and employers. “Green” mandates and subsidies increase costs and force reduced output on existing employers, making other parts of our economy inefficient and less competitive. That’s a tough pill for existing employer groups to swallow when the goal of their sacrifice is to force-feed a 2 percent sector of the workforce that can’t survive without ongoing incentives and subsidies.
We at the California Manufacturers & Technology Association compared some of California’s high-wage sector employment statistics to the new green jobs numbers. Basically, we found that our green jobs do not net out our losses. Here’s how the numbers broke down:
— Gino DiCaro is vice president of communications at the California Manufacturers & Technology Association and writes the CMTA’s MPowered blog.
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