Covid-19 Lockdown Could Kill 500k Cleantech Jobs

The coronavirus caught the United States flatfooted, rolling over the cleantech sector in the process. It employs 3.4 million people in this country but it lost 106,000 jobs in March — a number that is expected to rise to 500,000 by summer. 

Those are real people: electricians, welders, plumbers, installers and construction workers — tied to everything from energy efficiency to mechanical trades to manufacturing plants. They are not just America’s bread-and-butter but they are also the country’s voters and they are based in several states that are up for grabs in the 2020 presidential election. 

“If Congress does not do more and do it fast, 500,000 workers will lose their jobs in the next few months,” says Bob Keefe, executive director of Environmental Entrepreneurs, E2, on a call Wednesday with reporters. Comparatively, a total of 50,000 people work in the coal business, he adds, noting “every job is important but imagine how fast the White House would be working if all of those coal jobs were lost.” 

Clean energy has been an American success story: employment in the sector has grown by 10.4% since 2015, according to Clean Jobs America 2020 — a report sponsored by E2 and researched by BW Research. Specifically, the analysis says that clean energy and storage led the employment burst followed by renewable energy, electric vehicles and energy efficiency. In all, in 2019 clean energy made up 40% of all jobs in the energy industry and 2.5% of the nation’s overall employment. 

And now they are at risk. CMC Services weatherizes and retrofits homes and businesses to make them more energy efficient: In the last month, its revenues have fallen by 85% and its technical field staff has been idled, says its president, Tina Bennett. “Many of our peers have furloughed or laid off their workforce,” she said, on the call. “These industries are challenged by and vulnerable to the lock-down.” 

Cleantech jobs are spread across all 50 states, with a concentration in politically important California, Texas, Florida and New York. For context, President Obama came to office in 2009 on a promise of rejuvenating the American economy through a $1 trillion stimulus plan and of that, $90 billion was targeted to clean energy. More than 1 million clean energy jobs were subsequently created. At the time, the critics not only said the green energy projects were boondoggles but that the “invisible hand” of the free market should be the mechanism by which the country lifts itself from the Great Recession.

Past is Prologue

What a difference 12 years makes. The Trump administration enacted $1 trillion tax bill two years ago while just recently passing two stimulus measures that focus on putting cash in the pockets of working Americans and that help prop-up small businesses. The cost? $2.2 trillion. And now Donald Trump is trying to save the oil industry from collapse — a vital component of the American economy but one that employs a third of those in the cleantech sphere, according to the jobs report produced by E2: 3.36 million compared to 1.19 million. 

“The renewable sector represents $50 billion in annual investment for the past eight years,” says Greg Wetstone, chief executive of the American Council on Renewable Energy, during the call with reporters. 

To ensure that cleantech comes back strong, he says that Congress needs to extend the 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour production tax credit given to the wind and solar industry. In the alternative, they should offer a 30% investment tax credit that reduces their federal taxes dollar-for-dollar by what they put into a project. He says that a tax credit for energy storage is also needed, especially as more and more businesses generate electricity onsite with solar panels. 

It could also be worth incentivizing investment in retrofits during the lockdown. With schools closed and school buses idle, it could be the perfect time to grow clean energy jobs by retrofitting the nation’s school systems with efficiency project and renewable energy.