Most Americans have had a very difficult year and are eager to find something to rally behind. As challenging as the pandemic and corresponding economic downturn have been, they also have provided us with an opportunity to reconsider our priorities.
What is the way forward? How should this great nation carry on?
By focusing on the basics. Abundant, affordable, American-made clean energy is critical to our future—for rebuilding our economy, strengthening our national security, and reducing our emissions.
That’s why Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions is launching the Clean Energy Forward campaign. Clean Energy Forward will focus on Republicans in part because the majority of renewable energy in the country is produced in states President Trump carried in 2016.
The message of the campaign is simple: As America faces record unemployment, clean energy presents an opportunity to invest in U.S. workers, communities, and industries.
Our leaders must preserve and promote clean energy jobs to forge a new path. The numbers tell the story. Over the last five years, the clean energy sector has kept well ahead of total U.S. employment growth, adding jobs 70 percent faster than the overall economy from 2015–2019 according to a recent report from Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). We believe the sector will do so once again.
But billions of dollars of clean energy projects have been delayed and supply chains have been disrupted. Therefore, the time is now to stimulate growth by reinvesting in clean energy, pursuing fiscally responsible investments in infrastructure, and reducing barriers to the execution and completion of clean energy projects that will get Americans working again, at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayer.
It is not hyperbole to claim that clean energy can be a driver of our recovery. After all, it was among the strongest sectors of our economy before the crisis and should be one of the strongest coming out of it.
As a high-growth sector, clean energy will add jobs in every state and at every skill level, giving Americans across the country new opportunities for rewarding and well-paying employment.
In the coming weeks, we will be writing separate blog posts about different regions of the country to examine their clean energy resources and the local jobs impact. We also will be highlighting efforts by individual Republican lawmakers from those regions to share how they are helping to drive economic growth and job creation through clean energy.
We expect to continue and perhaps expand this campaign throughout the summer and beyond. Stay tuned and follow us on social media for the latest!
