Letters: Clean energy produces jobs, too

ISSUE | CLEAN ENERGY

Jobs producer too

It's difficult to understand a commentary's point that job creation and clean energy don't mix ("Once again, siding with greens over job creation,"

May 13).

Advanced energy - which includes technologies such as wind, solar, and nuclear power; natural-gas generation; energy efficiency; advanced transportation; and advanced grid solutions - is a $200-billion-a-year industry in the United States and growing. The sector employs nearly

2.7 million people, and job growth outpaced overall U.S. employment growth 4-to-1 last year.

The story is not different in Pennsylvania, home to an advanced-energy economy employing 57,000 people at more than 4,200 companies. Policies such as the federal Clean Power Plan and Pennsylvania's Act 129 offer opportunities to bring new advanced-energy jobs to the state and to deliver the "better future" that the commentary calls for.

|Maria Duaime Robinson, senior manager, energy policy and analysis, Advanced Energy Economy, Boston, mrobinson@aee.net