The U.S. could add hundreds of thousands of jobs if Congress requires that part of the nation's electricity be derived from renewable sources, according to a study released Feb. 4.

The U.S. could add hundreds of thousands of jobs if Congress requires that part of the nation's electricity be derived from renewable sources, according to a study released Feb. 4.



The study, by Navigant Consulting, said a renewable-energy standard requiring utilities to produce between 20 percent and 25 percent of their energy from wind, solar and other renewable sources would create between 191,000 and 274,000 jobs.



More than half would be high-value manufacturing jobs that could help the U.S. boost exports and develop an advantage in technological innovation, said Navigant, a business consultancy that conducted the study for the RES Alliance for Jobs, a consortium of renewable-energy companies.



Absent such a federal mandate, the study found, many states would lose renewable-energy jobs in coming years and some industries, such as biomass, could collapse altogether. As natural gas prices decline, renewable energy is less competitive against conventional sources of power generation.



A renewable-energy standard is receiving more attention now that federal climate-change legislation has stumbled. The Waxman-Markey bill, passed by the House of Representatives in June, included a requirement that 20 percent of U.S. energy come from renewables by 2020. Some environmental and renewable-energy groups are lobbying for such provisions in a separate jobs bill.



Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell this week urged a group of business leaders to support a federal renewable standard, characterizing it as critical to U.S. efforts to compete with China, which has become the largest exporter of equipment to generate solar and wind power. China is devoting more than $200 billion to clean energy in its economic-stimulus package.



Rendell urged business leaders to agitate for a renewable-energy standard. "Mandates are what will create the market," he said.



Speaking before the same gathering, a conference organized by the Brookings Institution think tank and investment bank Lazard, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the federal government can learn from the experience of states that are tackling climate change through their own renewable-energy standards.



California has set a goal of obtaining 33 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020, from about 13 percent now. "We don't mind being the laboratory for the federal government," Schwarzenegger said.



Bruce Katz, director of Brookings's Metropolitan Policy Program, said "the transition to a low-carbon economy is fundamentally about markets" and who will dominate them.



The states that would benefit most from a renewable-energy standard are those that already impose targets on their utilities such as California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Colorado and Florida.