Make clean energy investments to grow Michigan’s economy

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just announced it anticipates the two fastest-growing jobs in America over the next decade will be wind turbine technician and solar installer. By 2026, job opportunities in both occupations — which pay about $45,000 annually — are expected to double from current levels.

The growth of the clean energy economy is already unfolding here in Michigan and Detroit. According to the new “Clean Jobs Midwest” report from the nonpartisan business group E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) and Illinois-based Clean Energy Trust, approximately 92,000 Michiganders work in clean energy industries like energy efficiency and renewables. That’s about 5 percent more than last year, far outpacing the state’s overall job growth rate. In greater Detroit alone, about 40,000 people work in clean energy.

Despite the growth of the clean energy economy, Congress and the White House are pushing budget cuts to commonsense programs that support clean energy workers here in Michigan. These clean energy workers are counting on our congressional representatives — particularly Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Sen. Gary Peters — to convince their colleagues to keep crucial clean energy funding intact in next year’s federal budget. At the same time, Washington lawmakers should defend automobile pollution standards and the electric vehicle tax credit, both of which are helping Michigan workers and companies by spurring production of the auto industry’s most efficient vehicles.

While rapidly improving technologies, innovative business models, and unprecedented levels of private investment are the primary drivers of clean energy job growth, the federal government also plays a role. Through its own R&D initiatives, its support for private-sector innovation and by building the policy framework that helps cutting-edge business models succeed, federal clean energy initiatives have generated a big return on investment for taxpayers. The Energy Star program alone has saved average Americans $34 billion, despite operating on a $50 million annual budget.

Clean energy will power our future economy. Increased deployment of clean energy solutions here in Michigan and across the country underscores this trajectory. Unfortunately, slashing programs like Energy Star, or rolling back clean car standards that help create more opportunities for the 69,000 people who — according to the “Supplying Ingenuity II” report released earlier this year — work in fuel-efficient vehicle technologies in our state alone, won’t make Michigan or American industry economic leaders.

As chief operating officer for Levin Energy Partners, a Detroit-based clean energy finance firm, I see how policy drives economic growth every day. Our firm specializes in a finance tool called Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, which allows commercial and industrial property owners to use special tax assessments to secure long-term financing for energy-saving upgrades. Without PACE, these upgrades would be out of reach. Based on state and local laws and policies, PACE shows how smart policy can be the foundation for market solutions that unlock economic growth.

For example, our company just finalized PACE financing for the Radisson Hotel at Detroit Metro Airport, which completed $2.2 million worth of energy and water efficiency upgrades. The project relied on Wayne County’s PACE program, private investors, the falling costs of various energy-efficient technologies, and local workers who installed the hotel’s energy-saving LED lights, reflective rooftop, and super-efficient HVAC units.

With so much economic development and so many clean energy jobs in Michigan, why cut funding for successful federal clean energy initiatives? Why would our federal leaders abandon Michigan’s 74 solar manufacturing companies, or the 11 wind energy manufacturing companies located in and around Detroit? How can we justify delivering on a silver platter the clean energy jobs of the future to Europe or China? It doesn’t make sense.

As Stabenow likes to say, “We want to export our products, not our jobs.” We need to make sure we keep making the kinds of clean energy investments now that will grow Michigan’s economy — and create more opportunities for our state’s 92,000 clean energy workers — for decades to come.

Originally published at www.crainsdetroit.com on December 10, 2017.