If you listened to all the hubbub from Washington and the press, you’d think the American clean energy economy is all but dead. The fact of the matter is that renewable energy projects (and the jobs they carry) are popping up all over the country.
An interactive map from the NRDC tells the story. The tool allows you to search existing and planned renewable energy projects in the country by type of power. A search for wind energy, for example, yields results across most of the nation, with many more in the planned for the future. Search solar projects, and you’ll see facilities across the sun belt (duh), again with lots more in the works. You can also explore the renewable energy potential for different areas.
For more detail, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) offers up this list outlining the jobs being created by clean energy projects. Writing in Fastco Exist, Ariel Schwartz highlights a few key ones:
Two new solar plants in Arizona are creating 700 construction jobs, while a $22 million biomass project in Kentucky will recruit 340 workers. A mammoth solar project in California will generate over 900 temporary and permanent jobs.
A tip of the hat to both the NRDC and E2 for showing that clean energy jobs are real, and that we need to keep supporting clean energy development to create jobs for the future.
(via Fastco Exist)