Remember green jobs? They were supposed to be a win-win for America, simultaneously creating new skilled jobs and moving us toward sustainability. But, as Michelle Chen details,
the momentum has died:
Though federal green initiatives have provided vital seed money for wind farms and solar-generation projects nationwide, the blue-collar workers who have the most to gain from the projected clean-tech boom are still struggling to find any job, much less a green one.
Of course, green jobs are not the boondoggle portrayed by right-wingers. Solar panel companies and green building firms are hiring people, just not fast enough to dent the unemployment figures. In 2012 and 2013, several hundred projects related to renewables and green infrastructure were announced, potentially generating more than 180,000 green job openings, according to the green-tech advocacy group Environmental Entrepreneurs. But new investments have waned recently, in part due to lags in government supports. For example, many freshly announced new wind projects were halted abruptly in late 2012 when Congress delayed the renewal of a critical wind-production tax credit (goaded by aggressive lobbying from the dirty fuels industry). And the investment climate remains unstable, as another batch of credits remains in limbo for 2014.
Such setbacks demonstrate not only the crucial role of government investment but also the endemic unreliability of capital as the driver of an eco-conscious economic transition.
Capital has failed even more dramatically to match the hype around “green-collar jobs” as an employment program. Overall, even with the expansion of green-oriented businesses in the manufacturing, construction and technology sectors, workers involved in “green goods and services” made up under 3 percent of total employment in 2011.
It's really sad. This is valuable work that business and government alike should be investing in—and it is an investment, something that will yield massive benefits over the years. And while the potential for a lot of jobs right now was overhyped, there should, in the long run, be jobs in green energy and retrofitting and more—and they should pay well, not be just another class of new low-wage work. But all this promise is falling victim to climate change denial, Republican refusal to invest in America's future (or at least its non-military future) and shortsightedness on the part of business.