“‘The business community in California may not always be homogenous,’ says Andy Wunder of E2, one of the business groups that signed the letter. ‘And there is a lot of excitement from our clean energy companies and fleet owners and operators to see this Advanced Clean Fleet rule come through.’
Download the letter here.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate voted to confirm former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm as secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, making her just the second woman to lead the department since its creation in 1977. As governor, Granholm helped steer Michigan’s economy toward clean energy and electric vehicles following the 2008 financial crisis, leading […]
Reducing current and future global warming emissions is not enough to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We must also aggressively remove carbon dioxide that’s already in the atmosphere. While advanced carbon removal technologies are still on the drawing board, E2’s new report, Healthy Soils and the Climate Connection, shows that agriculture presents an immediate, […]
Making stored carbon farming’s next cash crop is vital to U.S. climate battle WASHINGTON – America’s farms were struggling just to make a profit even before the COVID-19 pandemic, but long-ignored soil practices could provide new revenue opportunities and long-term profitability for thousands of hard-hit farms across the U.S., according to a new report from […]
Most initiatives to fight climate change today focus on reducing fossil fuel emissions from electricity generation, transportation, and buildings. But to avoid the worst impacts of climate change we must also significantly reduce the atmospheric carbon that has already been emitted. While efforts are underway to develop new and high tech mechanisms to accomplish this, there is an immediately available and economically viable pathway for atmospheric carbon removal—one that provides a compelling new value proposition for farmers to revitalize their soils and get paid for doing it.
Regenerative agriculture methods such as cover cropping, crop rotation, low-till or no-till practices, and reduced reliance on fossil-fuel based inputs can mitigate climate change by drawing down atmospheric CO2 and sequestering that carbon in the soil, while improving microbial soil health, and increasing soil fertility, crop yield and resilience. These practices also produce multiple additional economic and environmental benefits.
For most of the past decade, agriculture has been one of the most challenging sectors of the U.S. economy. American farmers have had to endure plummeting crop prices, trade-war tariffs, rising costs for inputs like fertilizer, and increasing crop and livestock losses from extreme weather events and less predictable growing seasons—an estimated 85% of U.S. crop losses are due to extreme weather events. Then came COVID-19, disrupting supply chains, upending markets such as restaurants, schools, and institutional food, and further dimming farmers’ prospects with a likely extended recession. According to the Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, net farm income could plunge by 19% ($20 billion) in 2020.
But climate-smart agriculture and soil carbon drawdown are in the nascent stages of ushering in a potentially gamechanging chapter in 21st century agriculture. Through strategic direction of Farm Bill funds and other state and federal policies, partnerships with private sector companies seeking to go carbon-negative, and increased consumer demand for low-carbon food, fiber and fuel, regenerative cultivation practices can deliver four significant economic, environmental, and political opportunities for the U.S. farm economy.
Climate-smart agricultural practices offer a path to economic recovery and long-term profitability for hard-hit farmers by delivering increased and more consistent crop yields, reduced costs for inputs (fertilizer, fuel, pesticides) and crop insurance, and the opportunity to participate in markets for soil-based carbon removal. ‘Reduced carbon’ or ‘negative carbon’ crop outputs and the products derived from them may also have increased market value as consumer awareness and demand increases for products with these attributes.3 Healthier soils also make farms and ranches more resilient in the face of increasingly common extreme weather events.
“Ag tech” is one of the fastest-growing technology sectors, with investors from across the financial sector funding startup companies creating highly skilled jobs in technologies such as microbial soil additives, advanced sensors, drones, monitoring software, GPS mapping, genomics, AI, and data analytics. The demand for accurate soil data measurement and analysis is strong, and college programs to train new ag tech professionals are growing throughout the Farm Belt. Additional innovation is taking place in the creation of agricultural carbon trading platforms, establishing carbon as a new farm commodity.
While storing carbon from the atmosphere in agricultural soils can be a key factor in the battle against climate change, the practices that sequester carbon also deliver a wide range of other environmental benefits—including improved water quality and conservation, improved air quality, greater biodiversity, and reduced toxic inputs. Markets and other opportunities that monetize these practices are emerging, creating new revenue streams for farmers and ranchers across the U.S.
Support for policies to incentivize agricultural carbon sequestration has bridged the historically contentious divide between the environmental and agricultural communities because the practices that restore and enhance soil carbon produce both economic benefits for farmers and natural resource benefits to society. In 2017, for instance, an unprecedented coalition of environmental, business, and farm industry groups helped forge and recruit bipartisan Congressional support for the Soil Health Demonstration Trial in the 2018 Farm Bill, a key soil health enhancement and soil carbon measurement program. Since then, numerous policies building on that provision have been proposed at the state and federal levels by lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle, as diverse stakeholders recognize the benefits of valuing agricultural carbon removal.
Healthy Soils and the Climate Connection: A Path to Economic Recovery on America’s Farms provides a roadmap for how climate-smart agriculture policies could provide profit boosts for farmers and climate wins for advocates.
E2: Actions will help displaced oil and gas workers and get more jobs in low income and communities of color WASHINGTON (January 27, 2021) – Today, President Biden is announcing sweeping climate plans that include a moratorium on new federal oil and gas leases on public land, directs government to ramp up procurement of clean energy and […]
RGGI is an important and effective tool for addressing climate change, reduce health impacts of air pollution and generating millions of dollars of annual proceeds from the sale of auctions to invest in programs that can save consumers money invest in cleaner, more energy efficient communities.
The Transportation and Climate Initiative is a once in a generation opportunity to transform New York’s transportation system, cut carbon pollution and invest in communities and better transportation options.
As the state’s economy looks to recover from COVID-19, the clean energy industry provides an opportunity to both hasten our recovery and address other urgent challenges North Carolinians face, including racial inequity, job growth, job quality and climate change.
As the state’s economy looks to recover from COVID-19, the clean energy industry provides an opportunity to both hasten our recovery and address other urgent challenges North Carolinians face, including racial inequity, job growth, job quality and climate change.
Primed to Lead Washington’s Economic RecoveryAt the onset of 2020, Washington’s clean energy economy was coming off another year of solid growth, further establishing itself as the backbone—and future—of the Evergreen State’s energy sector. With more than 85,000 clean energy workers, the state ranked 13th for clean energy employment. Illustrating the important role this sector plays in Washington’s economy, the clean energy industry accounts for more than 25% of all construction jobs in the state. Importantly, these jobs’ wages and benefits compare favorably to other industries; E2’s recent Clean Jobs, Better Jobs report shows that the median wage for Washington’s clean energy economy pays nearly 11% more than the state’s overall median wage.
But following five straight years of job growth, Washington’s clean energy economy has been derailed by the economic recession driven by COVID-19. state policymakers have a central role to play as well. Tremendous job creation can be delivered by staying the course on implementation of existing clean energy policy, prime among them Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act. To ensure continued recovery and economic development in the years to come, state lawmakers should adopt additional policies in 2021 to drive investment and job growth in the clean energy economy. These policy opportunities—including a clean fuels program, clean truck standards, a state-wide limit on carbon pollution, and carbon pricing—can drive strong investments in climate solutions across the state. If well-designed, these and other policies have the potential to leverage Washington’s clean energy economy as an engine for broader economic recovery. Through October, more than 17,000 clean energy workers—almost one-fifth of Washington’s clean energy workforce pre-COVID—remain out of work.
Clean Jobs Washington 2020 comes at a critical juncture in the state’s efforts to recover from the COVID-19 health and economic crises. With the Washington state Legislature set to reconvene in January, policymakers will have the opportunity to leverage clean energy as an engine for broader economy recovery by enacting policies to get clean energy back on its growth trajectory. Policies such as a clean fuels program, clean truck standards, a state-wide limit on carbon pollution, and carbon pricing can drive investments in climate solutions and bring robust economic growth across the state.
This report details the size, scope, and diversity of this core Washington state employment sector, the troubles it is currently facing due to the pandemic, and the promise that strategic policy direction and stimulus investments in clean energy hold to drive a durable and sustainable recovery for Washington’s economy. In addition to detailing sector-by-sector employment, Clean Jobs Washington 2020 also breaks down jobs at the city, county, legislative and congressional district levels. See more details here.
This report focuses solely on the energy sector of the economy and does not include jobs in retail trade, repair services, water or waste management, and indirect employment or induced employment.
The complete report is available for download at this link.
This report follows E2’s Clean Jobs America analysis which found the clean energy jobs account for nearly 3.3 million jobs across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Both reports expand on data from the U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER) produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) in partnership with the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), using data collected and analyzed by the BW Research Partnership. E2 is a partner on the USEER, the fifth installment of the energy survey first released by the Department of Energy in 2016.
If you are looking for additional insight into E2’s Clean Jobs Washington 2019 or our other Clean Jobs America reports, visit e2.org/reports. You can also contact E2 Communications Director Michael Timberlake ([email protected]). An FAQ is also available here to answer any questions.
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