EuroWire March 2017

Transatlantic cable

According to the DOE, the number of jobs in energy e ciency overall increased by 133,000 to a total of 2.2 million for the year. † President Trump has promised an “energy revolution,” which he proposes to bring about by unleashing “America’s $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, plus hundreds of years in clean coal reserves.” This would in fact be a counter-revolution, to judge from this conclusion from 2017 US Energy and Employment: “Whether producing natural gas or solar power at increasingly lower prices or reducing our consumption of energy through smart grids and fuel-e cient vehicles, energy innovation is proving itself as the important driver of economic growth in America.” Signs are strong that the real energy revolution in the USA is already well underway. A high-pro le purchase of an electric car reminds the German luxury carmakers that range anxiety has not subsided As noted by Stephen Edelstein of Green Car Reports , the established German luxury brands provide plenty of options for elected o cials choosing a vehicle for use on government business. Indeed, he observed, given Germany’s considerable investment in its auto industry, the preference for a German-made car seems almost obligatory. Automotive

Presumably someone, at least, in the new administration will have been aware of a survey, published in October by London-based Ernst & Young LLP, which projected that the USA under a Trump administration stands to lose its position as the top-ranked renewable-energy market for investors. If the warning reached candidate Trump, clearly it failed to register with him; but, as president, Mr Trump should nd it harder to ignore another report, released on the same day he brought the pipelines back into play. The real ‘energy revolution’ 2017 USA Energy and Employment, from the US Department of Energy, is full of statistics but none more compelling than this: over the previous year, in the sector de ned by the DOE as Electric Power Generation, solar energy employed 43 per cent of the workforce (374,000 people), while traditional fossil fuels accounted for just 22 per cent (187,117). In other words, over the year 2015-2016, the agency found that solar power employed many more Americans than oil, gas and coal together. The DOE further demonstrated that the gap is growing. Between the year 2006 and September 2016, electricity generation from coal sources declined by 53 per cent; from natural gas, it increased by 33 per cent. Over the same period, solar-sourced electricity generation surged by over 5,000 per cent. In 2016 alone, USA solar industry employment increased by 25 per cent, adding 73,000 jobs to the economy. Wind energy employment saw an even larger increase of 32 per cent.

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March 2017