Carbonfund.org Blog

I work at a climate change solutions nonprofit, and you can bet I’m an advocate for a clean energy future. But if you’re trying to figure out what all this means and what the best choices are as our country goes forward, I want to point out a great piece of information. In 2008, the wind energy industry officially employed a total of 85,000 people across the country. On the other hand the coal industry has consistently lost jobs since a spike in employment around 1980. As of 2007 coal mining had 81,278 employees. This means wind energy production officially creates more jobs than coal mining related jobs.

Coal isn’t helping our sagging economy by slashing American jobs year after year.  Additionally, it’s a dirty energy of the past that survives because of government subsidies and tax breaks.  Alternatively, wind energy demonstrates that it increasingly provides jobs for our country.  Wind and coal are not even on a level playing field due to the unfair amount of support dirty energy sources receive, but wind energy is becoming more and more price competitive despite that disadvantage.  More importantly, it’s a smarter choice because it doesn’t continue to pollute our environment, and most of all (drum roll please) it won’t run out!  For me, this is a no-brainer.

We need energy to run our businesses and live our lives; it’s a simple fact.  But if we want to provide a strong quality of life for our future generations – and heck, to ourselves when we grow old – we have to switch gears to clean energy sources and switch gears fast.  The numbers tell us a story, and I believe we can make this transition before it’s too late!

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