More Energy, More Jobs
In this week's State of American Business address, U.S. Chamber president and CEO Tom Donohue outlined a five point plan to help create jobs and revive America's economy. A central plank in his plan is upgrading America's infrastructure and expanding our energy options, which will speed our economic recovery, establish a 21st century energy economy, and importantly, create tens of thousands of good paying American jobs.
The Chamber's Energy Institute is a strong advocate for a comprehensive approach to energy that maximizes efficiency improvements and takes advantage of all of America's resources, from traditional sources like oil, gas, coal and nuclear power to alternative technologies like wind and biomass. If America is to meet our growing energy demand, we'll need to utilize all of these sources of energy.
Beyond improving our energy security, investments in energy projects will create jobs—good jobs. As Tom Donohue noted yesterday, if all 19 companies that are pursuing licenses to build 26 new reactors proceed with their plans, they could support an estimated 240,000 direct and indirect jobs. And those are jobs that would pay higher wages on average than those in the local area. Building new nuclear power plants is a win-win—adding a clean, emissions free power source, securing our energy future, and putting people to work.
There is also a tremendous opportunity in oil and gas. The American oil and gas industry already employs 9.2 million Americans—and that's with 85 percent of our domestic resources off limits. If we were to unlock some of those resources offshore and onshore, we could make ourselves less dependent on foreign oil and create tens of thousands of new jobs.
Similar opportunities for growth exist in other energy technologies from clean coal to wind, solar, and other renewable sources. In order to maximize that potential, we need to spur investments to expand and modernize energy infrastructure to move power; ensure tax credits, loan guarantees and other financial mechanisms are used to smartly accelerate the use of new or significantly improved technologies; and invest in research and development of cutting edge technologies to drive innovation.
In the past year, we've seen policies from Washington that take energy resources off the table. That's not the recipe our nation needs nor deserves. It is time to change that and commit to developing more American energy, creating more jobs and keeping our economy competitive.
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