On Wednesday March 31^st the Operation Free bus made two stops in Massachusetts: the first destination was Senator Scott Brown’s (R-Ma.) home town of Wrentham, and the second stop was in Lowell, home to a growing state university.  In both towns, citizens expressed their excitement over the prospect of an American future powered by clean technology and their grave concerns about the increasingly clear tie between America’s ravenous oil consumption and the inevitable security vulnerabilities this very demand generates.  Yet the true common thread between both events – understandable considering the dual burden of recession and a pressurized employment market – was a rising tide of concern over what comprehensive energy legislation means for domestic jobs.

Citizens in both Wrentham and Lowell echoed the same apprehension voiced by Senator Brown during his February audience with Operation Free: that comprehensive reform will drive existing hydrocarbon energy jobs overseas as the American energy portfolio shifts to a more renewable base.  Does this argument hold?  The reality of an increasingly globalized world is that any large-scale business looking to take advantage of economies of scale will send some percentage of its manufacturing jobs overseas.  The rare earth magnets in wind turbine generators and the silicon in solar panels are both likely candidates, as both can be sourced more cheaply in China than the United States.  But accepting this as the end of the story, probing no further, and rejecting comprehensive energy reform out of hand would be a mistake.

Our energy status quo calmly accepts importing 60% of U.S. oil demand from overseas, yet the oil and gas industry still accounts for hundreds of thousands of jobs within our borders.  This is a telling reality: the U.S. energy sector can import products from abroad while still offering a significant number of Americans the employment they desperately need.  Energy reform is an opportunity to refocus our energy demand, not to outsource a vital U.S. industry.  Our nascent clean power industry will end up overseas, however, if the private sector is not offered a stable investment horizon to fund a proposal as ambitious and capital-intensive as repowering America.  Comprehensive energy legislation is the means to this stable end.

The key to generating local energy jobs is local energy demand, and there is plenty of that in the United States.  As we recover from our 2008 recession-driven energy consumption dip, there is no prospect for a demand drawback in the foreseeable future as our population is projected to grow by as much as 100 million before 2050.  Every wind turbine we erect in Iowa and every solar panel we install in Arizona will require an industrious American employee to operate and maintain this equipment.  Americans should rest easy knowing that as our demand for energy increases, domestic jobs will ramp up to feed this growth industry as it expands by orders of magnitude.

Don’t believe the hype about renewable power sending jobs overseas.  The whole point is to stop $1 billion of oil money from flowing out of the U.S. each day.  Responsibly crafted energy reform policy can ensure that today’s petrodollars aren’t converted to the foreign wages of tomorrow.  Contact your Congressional representatives in support of comprehensive energy legislation.  Raising your voice today helps to ensure America’s national security future.

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