Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more Americans worked in clean energy than there were school teachers in the country. Today, the booming clean energy sector is coping with hundreds of thousands of job losses as a result of the coronavirus recession. While some companies have continued to grow, others have taken a big hit.
What will it take to not only get these jobs back, but to scale the clean energy sector to new heights? What would it look like to put clean energy at the center of a U.S. economic recovery?
In this episode of Political Climate, we speak to Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, former chief economist for the Obama Administration’s Department of Commerce and resident senior fellow at Third Way, about a new survey of American clean energy businesses on what it will take to reboot the industry. We also speak to small business leaders in Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania to learn how COVID-19 has affected their work and what they’d like to see from policymakers going forward.
This conversation comes as bipartisan clean energy legislation is advancing in both the House and Senate. But prospects for a final bill remain uncertain as Republicans focus on nominating a new Supreme Court Justice following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Recommended reading:
- Third Way: How Clean Energy Businesses Can Survive and Thrive After COVID-19
- PV Tech: Lacklustre job growth leaves 14% of US’ clean energy workforce unemployed
- E&E News: Clean energy push caught in congressional chaos
- The Hill: House passes sweeping clean energy bill
- Verge: Democrats unveil new agenda for economic recovery and climate action
- A Green Economic Recovery: Global Trends and Lessons for the United States
This is the third episode in our “Relief, Rescue, Rebuild” series. The series theme song was created by @AYMusik. Listen and subscribe to Political Climate on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play or wherever you get podcasts! Follow us on Twitter @Poli_Climate.
Source: Greentech Media
