Report: More renewable energy helps jobs, wages

The Denver Business Journal - 12:33 PM MST Thursday, February 22, 2007

Boosting the amount of power Colorado's utilities would get from renewable resources from 10 percent to 20 percent would lead to more jobs, higher wages and an increase in the state's gross domestic product, according to a report issued Thursday by the Environment Colorado Research and Policy Center.

HB 1281, sponsored by Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, and Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, would raise the state mandate for using renewable resources to generate electricity to 20 percent by 2020 for large utilities.

The bill, to be considered by the House on Feb. 23, caps the cost of complying with the mandate that utilities can pass along to customers at 2 percent of their electric bills. The report compared the overall effect of the existing mandate on the state's economy -- that utilities get 10 percent of their power from renewable resources by 2015, a mandate voters approved in 2004 -- to the effect of raising the mandate to 20 percent by 2020. The comparison focused on how each policy affects overall spending, water use and air pollution.

The report found that under the higher 20 percent renewable standard, job creation would be 4.3 times higher, wages paid would be 2.2 times higher, and an increase in gross domestic product would be 1.9 times higher than under Amendment 37's lower requirement of 10 percent.

In an statement about the report, Gov. Bill Ritter -- who has backed renewable energy efforts in the state -- said increasing the requirement to 20 percent would raise Colorado's domestic product by $1.9 million, "bring over 4,000 high-paying, high-skilled jobs and over $570 million in wages paid to our state."

The report also said the 20 percent renewable energy goal also would lead to significant reductions of soot, smog, and mercury pollution, as well as 18 billion gallons of water savings by 2020 because wind and solar power uses less water than power generated using fossil fuels.

The rural economy also would benefit, the report said, via payments to farmers for renting land for wind turbines and increasing the property tax base in rural counties.