Marine Renewables and Jobs, Redux

Just a few days ago, I posted about how marine renewables are losing favor with some in part, because the industry hasn’t yet matured to the point where it can produce hundreds of jobs.  So I was gratified to come across this Business Week column by Saul Kaplan who argues that our laser-like focus on green jobs above all else distracts us from the equally significant matter of solving larger problems like reducing greenhouse gases and weaning ourselves off of foreign oil. Kaplan writes:

The problem with overplaying the promise of green jobs to win more backing for “decarbonizing” our economy is twofold. First, it threatens to turn people off to needed environmental actions if jobs don’t quickly materialize. Second, the pain of averting global warming and reducing our dependence on foreign oil is greater than we are being told. We need to build a broad consensus across America that transforming our energy system is imperative. We’ve already seen what happens to support for new energy policies when the price of gasoline at the pump goes down. Expect the same thing to happen if green jobs become the measuring stick for important energy policies like capping carbon dioxide emissions and concurrently creating a market to buy and sell exemptions.I hope the U.S. will compete as an innovator and global leader for green-collar work. We need all of the jobs that we can get to help us out of this economic downturn. But the driver for energy policy should not be the labor intensity of alternative approaches. If the best way to address global climate change and energy independence is to employ technology that doesn’t create significant numbers of jobs, that is the path we should take.

So march on marine renewables! Perhaps the industry can’t yet do a very good job of creating jobs right now, but the job of tackling climate change and energy independence is equally important.