Green Jobs

Santee Cooper has attracted supporters to its coal proposal by promising new jobs for the Pee Dee region. In truth a coal plant is a poor way to create jobs.

In South Carolina, we should pursue an energy future that meets our needs and spurs economic development and job creation. While coal is incapable of meeting this challenge, energy efficiency and renewable energy is equal to the task.

History has shown that one dollar invested in energy efficiency creates more jobs than one dollar invested in any other energy resource. In state after state, from Texas to Maryland to Florida, researchers have found that energy efficiency would save consumers millions of dollars in energy expenditures and create tens of thousands of high-paying new jobs.

A commitment to renewable energy sources could create approximately 20,000 new manufacturing jobs in our state, revitalizing a historically important sector of South Carolina’s economy. Nearly 2,000 of these jobs would be located in the Pee Dee region. Already, demand for wind turbines from General Electric’s factory in the Upstate has resulted in 500 new jobs in just 2 years.

The staggering economic development and job creation potential of these two resources is part of a revolution in America’s economy. Just as computer technology changed business in the eighties and the nineties, energy efficiency and renewable energy is expected to form the foundation of a new “green” economy in our country in the coming decades.

Rather than looking backwards, South Carolina should embrace the coming green economy. Our state’s electric utility, which is charged not only with keeping the lights on but also spurring economic development in South Carolina, should be leading this change. Instead, by choosing to build a new coal plant in the Pee Dee, it is holding us back.