Clean Energy Economy Generates Significant Job Growth

With legislators moving toward a powerful new statement on the future primacy of clean energy practices, the American job market appears to be following suit.

According to a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the number of jobs in America's clean energy economy grew nearly two and a half times faster than the number of overall jobs between 1998 and 2007. The Pew study represents the first empirical 50-state survey of recent clean energy job growth, as well as a potent indicator of the economy's direction in years to come.

Pew found that jobs in the clean energy economy grew at a national rate of 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007, versus traditional job growth of just 3.7 percent. At the state level, a similar pattern emerged: clean energy economy job growth outpaced overall job growth in 38 states and the District of Columbia over the same period. The Pew report found that the clean energy sector stands to expand further in the future, prompted by raised consumer demand, venture capital additions, and policy reforms at the state and federal levels.

According to Pew, "a clean energy economy generates jobs, businesses and investments while expanding clean energy production, increasing energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, waste and pollution, and conserving water and other natural resources."