Clinton Overly Optimistic on Alternative Energy

by Desiree Jackson and Brittany McLean

Hillary Clinton claimed on October 8, 2007 that she would create a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund that would help create millions of new jobs and rebuild the economic prosperity of the 1990s. Clinton was doing a six-city, two-day bus tour through Iowa on the “Middle Class Express” when she discussed the future of alternative energy. What do energy experts have to say about job prospects in this industry?

According to the Des Moines Register article cited above,

“under her Strategic Energy Fund plan, oil companies could choose to invest in alternative energy, or pay a portion of their earnings into the government fund. The fund would pay for tax incentives for homeowners and businesses that make their houses and offices more energy efficient. Investment in alternative energy will help create new, well-paying jobs in the United States.”

According to an AP report by Mike Glover, Senator Clinton claimed:

"It will unleash a wave of innovation, create millions of new jobs, enhance our security and lead the world to a revolution in how we produce and use energy."

Claim: The $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund would help create millions of new jobs.

According to USA Today,

“The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor unions and environmental advocates, is advocating a $300 billion, 10-year public-private program to create ‘clean energy’ industries. They project the program would create 3.3 million new jobs and free the United States from imported oil. Is that a realistic goal? Economist John Urbanchuck of the consulting firm LECG LLC desciribes it as a ‘laudable’ objective that would require some new technological breakthroughs and may not be
politically achievable.”

It appears that creating millions of new jobs in alternative energy, given the smaller amount of investment Clinton is calling for, is a bit of a stretch.

From the same article,

“Urbanchuck, whose specialties are agriculture and renewable fuels, estimates the ethanol industry currently employs only about 5,000 and is directly responsible for about another 100,000 jobs in associated fields such as transportation. Biodiesel employs even fewer people. He estimates 1,500 are directly employed in manufacturing another 25,000 in associated jobs. Wind and solar energy, meanwhile, are produced passively and require very few maintenance employees. Jobs in those fields involve mostly manufacturing windmills and solar panels. The United States has about 20,000 windmills that produce electricity.”

The total number of jobs in alternative energy today number less than 200,000. This makes Clinton’s claim of creating a million of jobs a “long shot.”

Lesson: New technology would be needed for the alternative energy industry to support millions of new jobs. Even with the new emphasis on alternative energy and greater funding, the field employs less than 200,000 people to date. Creating a million new jobs may not be feasible.