Like him or not, at least President-elect Barack Obama isn’t spending all his free time at a ranch.
In his weekly address to the nation (see clip here) Obama said that he wants to “double renewable energy production” as well as create three million new jobs. Although he didn’t specify how many of those jobs would be in the green sector, it’s a good bet that he means a lot of them. Over 80 percent of those new jobs will be in the private sector.
He also wants to kick off a program to renovate public buildings for energy efficiency, a topic that incoming Secretary of Energy Steve Chu has championed for years. Contractors, get ready: You work in what will become one of the huge growth sectors in the economy.
“Nearly two million lost their jobs last year and millions more are working in jobs that pay less with fewer benefits,” he said.
Of course, delivering on this will be tougher than promising it. Doubling renewable energy production won’t exactly reverse global warming or eviscerate OPEC either. As the Energy Information Administration points out in its comprehensive surveys, renewables remain a fairly low fraction of the energy pie in the U.S. Renewable electric power only accounted for 7 percent of the total energy in the U.S. in 2006. Biomass and hydroelectric account for 90 percent of that 7 percent. Wind only accounts for 4 percent and solar only one percent. Together, that makes wind and solar 5 percent of 7 percent, or 0.35 percent.
The report came out in 2008, but it takes a while to assess all the data. Still, even if you factor forward you can bet that solar is bigger, but still a very small contributor.
The Department of Energy and ThinkEquity also reported last month that companies will likely miss their targets for producing cellulosic ethanol.
But it’s a start.
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