Global Green News
Green Impact
NEW ORLEANS CITY BUSINESS. JULY 13, 2009. By Deon Roberts
Louisiana is on the front lines of the congressional battle over whether clean energy will create or cost jobs
As Congress debates the American Clean Energy and Security Act, its supporters say tens of thousands of jobs will be created in Louisiana, in addition to improving the environment.
But opponents say the act could cost the state high-paying refinery jobs, a loss that would not be offset by new clean-energy jobs.
Washington, D.C.-based Repower America, a project of the nonprofit Alliance for Climate Protection, says continued growth in the clean energy industry could create more than 52,000 new jobs in Louisiana during the next 30 years.
In Baton Rouge, continued growth in the clean energy industry could create more than 27,000 new jobs during the same period, according to the group.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and Green For All say a $2.2 billion investment in clean energy would create 29,000 new jobs in Louisiana, and a $615 million investment in New Orleans would create 6,629 new jobs.
Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane University Energy Institute and a clinical professor of finance for Tulane’s A.B. Freeman School of Business, questions those figures.
“It’s the assumptions about the (job) growth rate that’s at issue,” Smith said, adding that it’s hard to project what jobs will be created three decades from now.
“What is left out of the equation are the jobs in hydrocarbon production, refining and petrochemicals that would be forfeited as business owners moved facilities out of the country,” he said.
The act could eliminate such high-paying jobs in Louisiana, where there are about 50,000 jobs in oil and gas production and 50,000 jobs in refining and the petrochemical industry, he said. Average salaries for those workers are more than $65,000, and some workers without college degrees earn as much as $100,000 a year, Smith said.
“The state badly needs those jobs and the communities need the taxes those companies provide,” he said.
Smith said the amount of clean-energy jobs the legislation would create would not make up for the costs the act would create.
“I have a lot of problem with saying we can make everything better in five or 10 years if we just concentrate on green alternates,” he said. “I think that the numbers will be a lot more repressive on the economy than they talk about.”
Larry Wall, public affairs director for Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, said new clean-energy jobs won’t pay as much as refinery jobs.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and Green For All say reports show that nearly half the clean energy jobs created in New Orleans would be for workers with high school degrees or less.
But Louisiana needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because they lead to global warming, which contributes to the intensity of hurricanes, said John Atkeison, director of climate and clean-energy programs for New Orleans-based Alliance for Affordable Energy.
“On the one hand, you have people who say that oil and gas are vital to the economy of Louisiana,” he said. “On the other hand, the emissions from that activity are extremely harmful.”
Atkeison agrees that some clean-energy workers, such as someone weatherizing a home, won’t be paid as much as an engineer at a refinery.
“If they’re a laborer, they’re going to be paid as a laborer,” he said.
But those who specialize in the heating and cooling systems of buildings will earn more than a laborer, he said.
“Just like any sector of the economy, there’s going to be some high-paid jobs and there’s going to be some low-paid jobs,” he said.
