A number of associations and advocacy groups are planning on releasing a report in April on U.S. energy jobs, including in the renewables sector, picking up the effort after the U.S. Department of Energy canceled plans to fund the report.
The effort to compile and process the 2017 data costs about $1 million, Bob Keefe, E2 executive director, said in an interview after announcing the effort at the Climate Leadership Conference in Denver on March 2. The conference was hosted by C2ES, Bloomberg Philanthropies and The Climate Registry. The jobs report is being funded through grants and in partnership with a number of organizations including E2, the National Association of State Energy Officials and the Energy Futures Initiative, an organization founded by former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
The clean energy sector, particularly wind and solar, views their ability to generate more jobs than the fossil fuel industry in recent years as one of their strongest talking points when it comes to convincing fiscally minded officials they should support the continued transition from coal-fired generation to lower emitting natural gas, energy efficiency, wind, solar and battery storage. But the Trump administration has put a greater focus on trying to rescue the ailing coal-fired and and nuclear generation industry.
DOE did not immediately respond to requests for comment but the last jobs report it issued was in January 2017 for 2016 figures. The agency has, however, recently hired a consulting firm to study the potential economic and jobs benefits of U.S. coal.
Keefe said the study is using the same contractor, BW Research Partnership, and methodologies as DOE did but it also plans to dive deeper with the data and break the figures down by legislative districts so that E2 and others can use the figures to lobby lawmakers on the number of clean energy jobs in their region. The report will include surveys from about 35,000 companies, he said.
"We're going to put the band back together," Keefe said at the climate conference.
