Recently, I found myself in a Vancouver restaurant waiting to be served behind a dozen folks from the Northwest Renewable Energy Institute, a training program for those looking to tap into a growing alternative energy sector.
As I watched each student order about $7.50 worth of lunch, I realized I was looking at the hope for rebuilding our region's and our nation's economy with renewable energy – that is, if Congress and the Obama Administration will step up and make current incentives last long enough to keep this mini-boom going.
They should – and Clark County's business community should be leading the charge to demand that Congress act.
The benefits of a clean energy future are all around us:
- Hundreds of millions of dollars of wind turbines and components are handled by union longshoremen at the Port of Vancouver
- Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer, has its North American headquarters in Portland, with many of their employees living here in Clark County
- The top regional project permitting and finance attorneys are here in Vancouver and Portland
- Civil and electrical engineers who support the wind & solar power business are based here
- Contractors handling everything from electrical work to trucking are based here
- Project developers based in the area benefitting from the synergies and programs in our region
These jobs and many more – like the busy restaurant workers I saw serving those students that day – all depend on Congress extending incentives that have led to billions of dollars of private investment in renewable energy.
If Congress does not act, the turbines stop coming through the Port and tech jobs will dry up. That has been the history of the renewable energy sector in this country. With growing fears of a double dip in the housing and other sectors, we cannot afford to allow the progress we've made in the renewable energy sector in this region and this country be stalled.
Business leaders need to make this case and make it now to all of our candidates for the U.S. House and Senate. The "boom and bust" cycles have held us back too long.
Let's keep those long lines in Vancouver restaurants growing with even more workers in renewable energy by demanding that all candidates for Congressional seats express their strong support for continuing renewable energy as a cornerstone for rebuilding our economy and helping stem the advance of climate change. This is a "two-fer" of which we can all get behind – putting people to work in jobs that help create a better world for our children.
