Keystone Debate Ignores the Best Source of Energy Jobs
With U.S. Congressional leaders trumpeting “jobs, jobs, jobs” in the latest debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, Environmental Entrepreneurs Executive Director Bob Keefe is out with a HuffPost blog pointing to clean energy as the real source of job creation.
“If members of Congress are so concerned about jobs, why in the world are they willing to bet our future on the Canadian pipeline while refusing to support crucial, overdue policies that will expand clean energy that’s homegrown right here in the USA?” he asks.
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Keystone would create 1,950 construction jobs, and another 50 full- and part-time positions once construction is complete, Keefe says. By contrast, E2’s latest quarterly jobs report shows 18,000 new clean energy jobs in 20 states in Q3, across red states and blue.
“In other words, nine times as many jobs were announced by energy efficiency, solar, wind, biofuel, and other companies in the USA,” Keefe writes, “in just the last three months alone.”