MILWAUKEE, WI - Investments in energy efficiency and alternative fuels would benefit more than 340,000 Wisconsin workers, ranging from bus dispatchers to chemical engineers, according to a report released today by a coalition of groups including the Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers. The report identifies 45 occupations expected to be more attractive because of six "clean-energy" strategies. It lists the numbers of workers and median wages in those occupations in Wisconsin and 11 other states. And rather than speculating on possible employment growth, the report suggests increased demand for existing workers with skills linked to certain strategies.
"We have skills here in Wisconsin to respond to the growing demand as we convert to a greener economy," said Rosemary Wehnes, Midwest associate representative for the Sierra Club. "A lot of our work force do have the skills to do green jobs. And some of them are already doing green jobs." For instance, installers of heating and air conditioning units are already helping customers reduce energy consumption by putting in more efficient equipment. And they'd be even busier as more building owners pursued greater efficiency, according to the report. State and federal data show 5,200 such workers in the state with a median hourly wage of $19.86.
The report says making buildings more energy efficient would increase demand for insulation workers, carpenters, carpenter helpers, roofers, building inspectors, construction equipment operators, construction managers, industrial truck drivers and electricians. Besides retrofitting buildings, the report examines job needs for mass transit, energy-efficient automobiles, wind power, solar power and cellulosic biofuels.
The Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, prepared the report, which is being released as the U.S. Senate debates climate-control legislation. "The reason why I'm kind of fired up about doing renewable energy and solar panels and wind panels and biofuels is it opens a whole new way to create good-paying jobs," said Tom Peplinski, an instrument electrician at the NewPage Corp. paper mill in Whiting.
Peplinski said the push to go green offers opportunities for local workers with technical skills, even as older industries, including papermaking, are contracting. "What we're trying to do is promote a whole new economy, a green energy economy," said Peplinski, a local union president who has taken a leave from the mill to campaign for green jobs.
The report did not address the possibilities of job displacements resulting from the various strategies. Some of its conclusions agreed with a report released in March from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That study says that "many skills of the greener future are closely related to the skills of today."
Source: JSonline.com