Anew Jobs report from the U.S. Energy Department indicates that solar energy employs more people than coal, natural gas, and oil. In fact, solar energy in the U.S. employs more people than coal, natural gas, and oil combined.
Given the information coming from this report, it is time for Republican opposition — including the president — to stop pretending their fight for fossil fuels is a fight for the American worker, because it clearly is not. According to the report, released in January, solar energy employed 374,000 people (approximately 43 percent of the energy sector’s workforce), and fossil fuels employed 187,117 people combined (around 22 percent of the workforce).
If solar-energy production continues to rise — as it will — and the industry continues to employ vastly more people than the other energy segments, it’s hard to argue that the biggest reason politicians continue to support the fossil-fuel industry isn’t merely to protect their financial backers.
According to a 2016 article from The Guardian, fossil-fuel “millionaires” pumped (so to speak) more than $100 million into Republican SuperPACs in 2015. And although the article also points out that Hillary Clinton received $7 million from fossil-fuel millionaires, that figure pales in comparison with the total for climate-change-denying Republicans in the most recent presidential election.
President Trump has made it clear in a number of ways that he not only doesn’t believe in climate change, he is also almost dead-set on destroying the planet through attempts to deregulate the energy sector and help the fossil-fuel industries, a move that he believes will stimulate the economy. However, if solar energy employs more people than all fossil fuels, there is little argument that fossil fuels are truly beneficial.
There are, of course, certain people who, and organizations that would , benefit from the removal of environmental regulations. For example, newly Senate-confirmed Secretary of State and former CEO of Exxon Mobil Rex Tillerson may benefit from a growth in the fossil-fuel segments of the energy sector. So, too, would Exxon, his former company, which provided a generous severance package worth roughly $180 million when Tillerson moved on.
According to The Independent, Trump’s proposals on The White House website are aimed at eliminating “burdensome regulations on our energy industry.” Some of the regulations Trump considers “harmful and unnecessary” included the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. Rule.
The Daily Iowan Editorial Board is by no means proposing the complete and immediate termination of the fossil-fuel industry in the name of the environment or anything else. In fact, former Secretary of State STET Clinton’s proposal of using natural gas as a bridge fuel to work toward a completely renewable-energy future made a lot of sense.
But arguably the main reason to continue to support the fossil-fuel industry in the face of overwhelming environmental (and other) opposition has been in the name of economics. Fossil fuels promised a vast array and large number of jobs while also promising to build the U.S. economy by lowering dependence on foreign energy sources. However, the most recent report proves this position to be wrong.