Edward Markey in the Wall Street Journal:
Regarding your editorial “A Better Idea for Green Jobs” (op-ed, Oct. 15): Here are the facts. Employment in the U.S. solar industry has doubled in the last two years. Solar energy now employs more than 100,000 Americans, tens of thousands more than in coal mining. The wind industry employs 85,000. According to the Brookings Institution, the clean economy now employs 2.7 million Americans, more than the fossil-fuel industry.
By comparison, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and Chevron, which made $546 billion in profits between 2005 and 2010, actually reduced their U.S. work forces by a combined 11,200 workers.
Despite rhetorical attacks, clean energy is winning. New wind projects are selling their power for as little as three cents per kilowatt-hour, cheaper than natural gas. America is currently a net exporter of solar technology. We have a renewable energy technology trade surplus with China. From 2007 to 2010, America constructed nearly 32,000 new megawatts of wind, solar and biomass electricity. That is more than three times the amount of new coal during that time. Yet the only clean-energy company that conservatives seem to be able to talk about is Solyndra.
Clean energy employs millions of Americans and provides power to millions more. Most Americans want to see their nation dominate a sector estimated to be worth $12 trillion over the next two decades.
Rep. Ed Markey (D., Mass.)
Ranking Member, Natural Resources Committee
Malden, Mass.