My colleague Joe blogged last week on three big reasons why climate will move to the top of the agenda as we close out the year and move into the next Congress.  His reasons show how naysaying and looking backwards is proving costly and damaging both for communities and at the ballot box:

1. Climate change impacts are costing the Federal Government  too much money (and people too much hardship)
2. Big Oil and King Coal’s money play was a costly failure
3. Poll after poll  shows the public increasingly wants action on climate change (even before Sandy…)

I’d add a fourth reason which shows that when America moves forcefully to act on climate change  it works:

Workers build the more efficient next generation Jeep Grand Cherokee at Chrysler’s Jefferson North Assembly Plant. Photo: DrivingGrowth.org

4. Major U.S.  actions to address climate change delivered big on jobs in communities across the country and big on votes on election day

Over the past two years, while talking about climate was seen as controversial, the administration, U.S. companies and American workers nonetheless took major action to cut the carbon pollution that causes climate change—most notably a huge transformation of our auto sector to build far more efficient and less carbon-polluting cars and trucks, as well as major new investments in clean electric power.

These clean energy and advanced vehicle policies and investments were also attacked throughout the campaign—and the success of the auto recovery in particular became a central issue in the election. But when the votes were tallied Tuesday, the verdict was clear: support for the real jobs benefits of the auto industry revival had been pivotal in Ohio and Michigan, and likely influential in other states. Last minute misinformation on Jeep backfired in states that had seen billions in investment and tens of thousands jobs built in the last two years.  And auto wasn’t alone.  Articles last week argued that attacks on the wind energy production tax credit (PTC) may have affected the outcome in Iowa, where a boom in large scale wind energy generation and wind energy manufacturing is also driving economic growth.

When push came to shove (and there was alot of pushing and shoving) voters in swing states across the country stood up for the lasting jobs they could see coming back in their own neighborhoods and the clear evidence that America can innovate and lead in a 21st Century economy.

As I’ve blogged before, this is what action on climate change looks like in real life.  New jobs and great cars from a resurgent and globally competitive auto industry prove handily that American companies, workers, and communities have what it takes to meet this challenge and rebuild our economy at the same time.

Even better, looking forward, the auto and election results also suggest there is economic and political momentum behind a strategy that would rebuild the nation’s economy and rebuild communities from threats like Sandy through policies that drive investment in the energy and infrastructure of the future.

After decades of crisis in the auto industry, the current revival results from a combination of:

• Major public and private reinvestment in manufacturing the most advanced vehicle technology in America, and;
• Strong fuel-economy and greenhouse-gas regulations that ensured the industry would not waste that investment rebuilding for the past, but innovate and invest for the future and for global markets.  (To see how these policies worked together to build jobs go here, here or here or hear directly from workers here, here or here.)

The climate benefits of these new efficient cars are no small potatoes—the industry will cut the carbon pollution from its new cars in half by 2025, and cut total U.S. carbon emissions by nearly 10 percent. And those pollution savings come by way of using much, much less fuel which means big savings for consumers and big increases in energy security. And it is this win-win-win on jobs, family pocketbooks, and security that works so powerfully for the economy and translates into votes.

Every industry is different, but it is a mistake to see the auto industry story as unique.  Instead it should be seen as a powerful case study—relevant in many particulars to the building, transportation infrastructure, and utility sectors, just to name a few.  It urges the following:

• Effective climate/ energy/ efficiency standards are essential to make innovation the norm, not the exception.  They ensure a broad domestic market for innovation, and relevance in global ones.
• Reinvestment in American skills, manufacturing and infrastructure is critical to grow jobs at home, to provide positive transition opportunities, and is also essential to compete globally
• Go big and concrete, so that at the end of the day we can all point to new clean and efficient products and infrastructure that deliver real quality of life and economic benefits to us every day. And make those actions sufficient to head off  the looming resource and climate crisis facing our children and  already lapping at our doors.

Over the past three years, amidst widespread acrimony, climate naysaying, and government bashing, the public and private sectors nonetheless worked together to revitalize a key sector of the economy, bring back hundreds of thousands of jobs, adopt state-of-the-art clean energy, transportation and efficiency technology, and take the biggest steps we’ve ever taken to cut carbon pollution and reduce our oil dependence.

Lets keep up the good work, keep acting on climate change,  and maybe go a little lighter on all that talk radio.

It was all about the future of energy at an event at the Center for American Progress here in DC Friday morning when CAP released their  new report:  “Regional Energy, National Solutions:  A Real Energy Vision for America”.  NWF authored the Midwest  and Southeast chapters of the report.

Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline runs under the straits of Mackinac. Photo: MDOT Photo/Video Unit

Meanwhile, back at the event,  speakers including Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, described a diverse national clean energy strategy, built on the powerful energy, manufacturing and technology assets of regions across America.  Speakers and the report contrast this diverse clean energy plan to the American Petroleum Institute’s “Drill Baby Drill” vision: more oil and other fossil fuels.  Period.   That vision is conveniently simple.  The impacts, less so.

Fossil fuels play a large role in today’s economy, but we now know that the energy that powered the last two centuries comes with a side dish of volatile prices, environmental, health and safety risks, and it speeds climate change -which, by itself, threatens our economy, security, and sustaining the natural world for our children.

Fortunately, as Friday’s report describes, the energy world has changed.  Today we have a wealth of large scale opportunities that take energy, our economy, and the future of wildlife and our outdoor heritage forward together.  

Large scale clean energy implementation is happening across the country. Graphic: Center for American Progress

 Or, as NWF climate policy director, Joe Mendelson, said about last weeks pipeline “anomalies”:  “The best approach to our energy challenges isn’t building more pipelines, its embracing clean energy solutions that don’t spill or explode”

So whats really happening out there?

As we show in the report, states and regions all across the country are proving that they can prosper by implementing new energy technologies at scale. They show that a diverse national clean energy strategy anchored on strengths of the whole nation can build hundreds of thousands of jobs, and revitalize our economy. These solutions are real  and they may include some surprises:

• Offshore wind is the only utility-scale energy resource abundant enough to contribute substantially to the sustained, long-term energy demands of the Atlantic Coast region. Developing just 54 gigawatts of offshore wind in Atlantic waters would generate $200 billion in economic activity and create 43,000 permanent, well-paid technical jobs, in addition to displacing the annual output of 52 coal-fired power plants. (these regional bullets excerpted from CAP’s press release, and fact sheet)

NWF’s own recent report The Turning Point Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy underscores these results and emphasizes the diverse economic opportunities for states from Maine to Florida from robust adoption of offshore wind.  NWF was happy to join Clean Energy States Alliance who authored the Atlantic coast chapter of today’s report on their release.

Building the next generation of fuel efficient vehicles.  Photo: Sam VarnHagen/ Ford Motor Co.

• In addition to revitalizing American manufacturing, the deep oil savings from vehicles now being built in the Midwest under strong new fuel economy standards mean net savings to consumers of more than $54 billion a year in 2030 and will add 570,000 jobs to the economy.

• The Southeast boasts more firms across the high-tech smart-grid value chain than any other region and continuing to lead this transition offers the opportunity to create diverse job opportunities. At the same time, if [through enhanced efficiency], the region were to cut energy use across the region by 16 percent in 2030  consumers would see an annual savings of $71 billion and 520,000 jobs by 2030.

• In the Gulf Coast region, each $1 million in investment in ecosystem restoration can create as many as 36 jobs across a huge range of occupations and skill levels—more than equivalent investments in traditional infrastructure projects.
• The Mountain West boasts nearly unlimited renewable energy resources and these nonhydro projects, either under construction or in advanced development, represent 71,872 jobs. A study by Headwaters Economics found that from 1970–2010, nonmetropolitan counties in the West that had more than 30 percent protected federal lands increased jobs by 345 percent. Nonmetropolitan counties with no protected federal lands saw just 83 percent growth.
• The solar industry in California has experienced significant growth over the past 15 years. Since 1995 the number of solar businesses grew by 171 percent, and total employment jumped by 166 percent. As a point of comparison, the total number of California businesses has grown by 70 percent and employment increased by 12 percent.

These examples are not the only promising clean energy opportunities for the given regions, nor have we covered all the regions or promising technologies for the nation. But they clearly show a wealth of win-win energy opportunities in front of us that deliver to communities,  industries, and the environment across the country.  America’s energy strategy should start there.